Tuldra A, Ferrer MJ, Rodriguez C, Bayes R, Burger D, Clotet B; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1998 Sep 24-27; 38: 421 (abstract no. I-177).

Germans Trias I Pujol University Hospital, Badalona, Catalonia, Spain.

INTRODUCTION: The new therapies for HIV infection have shown the importance of a correct adherence to treatment. Bad compliance produces: treatment's failure, the development of mutant resistant strains and a considerable waste of money. OBJECTIVES: a) to know the rates of adherence to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART); b) to determine the most important variables affecting compliance; c) to propose a useful model to predict compliance in clinical care. Our hypothesis are that adherence with HAART is higher than with previous treatments and that the most important variables affecting adherence are related to personal factors. METHOD: A systematic transversal study of 100 HIV-infected patients (65 male) taking HAART. Compliance was measured by drug levels, information from pharmacy department dispensation and referred by the patient. RESULTS: The mean of adherence was 88% (SD=25%). The most frequent causes for non-adherence in patients were: forgetting (34%), not to carry the medication with them (27%), side effects (25%), other illnesses (9%) and lack of interest (4%).The most important variables related to compliance were: perceived autoefficacy to adhere to treatment (r=0.58 p=0.01), subjective effort index to take medication (r=-0.49 p=0.01) and intravenous drug use history (p=0.04). Other variables less significant were: emotional situation (r=0.34 p=0.01), time of diagnosis (r=0.30 p=0.01), beliefs about medication (r=0.21 p=0.05) and beliefs about their HIV-infection stage (r=0.21 p=0.05). Some variables were not found to contribute to adherence: type of retrotranscriptase or protease inhibitor (PI), time of treatment, CD4 lymphocytes levels, viral load levels, sex and age. The significant variables were analysed by a linear regression test. The best model includes: perceived autoefficacy to adhere to treatment (AE) (measured with a 5 levels scale), effort index to take medication (EI) (measured with a 100 levels scale) and intravenous drug use history (IDU). We calculated an index with this formula: (AEx2)-(EI/100)+1 (if IDU) or + 0 (if not IDU). The results predict the adherence with a 64 % of efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: a) Levels of compliance with HAART are higher than with previous treatments. b) The most important variables affecting adherence are related to personal factors. c) A simple evaluation with the proposed model predicts adherence with a 64% of efficacy.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Humans
• Male
• Models, Biological
• Patient Compliance
• Substance Abuse, Intravenous
• Viral Load
• diagnosis
• drug therapy
• history
• therapy

Other ID:

• 20710991

UI: 102188336

From Meeting Abstracts