Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy among Patient Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (PLHA) Patients Visiting at Anti-retroviral Therapy Center in Pokhara

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to assess the status of adherence to Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) among patient living with HIV AIDS (PLHA) patients receiving ART therapy. A crosssectional descriptive design was used to collect data from 326 PLHA patients. Data were collected through face to face interview among the attended in ART clinic western regional hospital, Pokhara. Participants aged 18 years and above and patient receiving ART at least for 12 months or more were included in this study. The collected data entered in Epi-data and analysis was done using SPSS. The age group of the respondents was from 18 to 70 years with the mean age of 40.29±11.84 (SD). Out of 326 respondents 55.2% were male and 59.8% were married. Forty percent of the respondents had no formal education and most of the respondents (60.4%) were unemployed. Majority (86.5%) of respondents were taking ART since more than 2 years of duration. Majority of the respondents (92.9%) had >95% adherence with ART while 7.1% respondents had non- adherence. The majority of the PLHA patients have more than ninety five percent adherences to anti-retroviral therapy. Some of them have still nonadherence to ART and the reason they claimed were forgetfulness during travelling and too long duration of treatment. It is recommended to promote awareness program related to ART therapy and importance of its adherence to their family member and community people