Multi-measure assessment of adherence to antiretroviral therapy among children under five years living with HIV in Jinja, Uganda.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is required to achieve HIV viral load suppression. However, children under 5 years in Jinja, Uganda, had been shown to have low HIV suppression rates. This study aimed to determine the level of ART non-adherence among these children and the associated factors. METHODS:Data for the cross-sectional study was collected from April to July 2019, from caregivers of 206 children under 5 years living with HIV who were attending health facilities in Jinja and had been on ART for at least 3 months. Non-adherence was measured using a Visual Analog Scale that assessed both dosing and timing non-adherence, and by determining the Proportion of Days Covered by the medication. A questionnaire administered to the caregivers was used to collect the data, together with medical record review. A child was only considered adherent if they had adherence greater than 95% on all the measures. The data was analysed using Modified Poisson Regression, taking a p-value less than 0.05 as statistically significant. RESULTS:Of the 206 children, 73.8% were older than 2?years, and 52.9% were female. Likewise, the majority of caregivers were female (93.7%). Using the combined adherence measure, 57.3% of the children were categorised as non-adherent. School/day-care attendance, Prevalence Ratio (PR)?=?1.25 (p?=?0.042), the caregiver having higher than a primary school education, PR?=?0.72 (p?=?0.044) and satisfaction with the quality of service at the health facility, PR?=?0.97 (p?

SUBMITTER: Ssanyu JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7457490 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature