FACTTORS INFLUENCING ADHERENCE TO ART AMONG HIV/AIDS CLIENTS AT KAMPALA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL BUSHENYI DISTRICT

ABSTRACT

Globally there was an estimated 33 million people living with HIV by the end of 2007

and more than 25 million people since 1981 have died from AIDS. In 2007 there were 2.7

million new infections and 2 million HIV-related deaths. All these facts are attributed to

compromise of adherence to ART. Currently there are an estimated 940,000 people

(adults and children) living with HIV in Uganda but the adherence levels are hence

posing a great challenge in the fight against the scourge. To assess factors influencing

adherence to ART among HIV/AIDS clients at Kampala International University

Teaching Hospital, a descriptive cross-sectional study design quantitative in nature was

used to recruit 52 respondents for the study out of whom 52 questionnaires thus giving a

response rate of 100%. 75% of the respondents strongly agreed that level of income may

influence adherence to ART, 57% of the respondents agreed that drug hypersensitivity

and side effects affects adherence to ART and 63.5% of the respondents agreed that clinic

characteristics can impact on adherence. The researcher concluded that client related

factors influencing adherence to ART include client’s age, level of education, level of

income, social support, co morbidities and patient’s belief about effectiveness of ART,

therapy related factors affecting adherence to ART include; polypharmacy,

hypersensitivity, pill burden and regimen complexity, and health system related factors

affecting adherence to ART include; Clinic characteristics, self-medication, lengthy wait

before next clinic visit and patient-provider relationship.