ASSESSMENT OF ART ADEHERENCE AT ZEWDITU MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ADISS ABABA

Abstract

Background information Today, HIV infection is a serious public health problem. However the advent of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) has dramatically improved the prognosis for HIV-positive patients, substantially reducing the rate of disease progression and death; but HAART Adherence is found to be critically important for the success of the therapy. The objective of this study is to assess ART adherence among PLHA attending ART clinic at Zewditu Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the study method that is used is institutional cross-sectional study will be conducted with both quantitative & qualitative methods on PLWA at Zewditu Memorial Hospital with the major findings: The mean age of the respondents was 41.70 years (i.e. in the age category of 40 – 49 years). The ages of the majority (about two-third, 63.0%) of the patients in the study were found to be in the age brackets of 40 - 49 years (thirty-three percent) and 30 -39 years (only thirty percent). The patients who are living with HIV/AIDS and engage in ARV treatment have already become aware of the benefits of taking ART, such as AIDs will be delayed (83.0%), they get cured (91.0%), get sick (93.0%) and live longer life than others (92.0%). Therefore, the majority of the respondents in the study experience the multi-dimensional benefits of the ART. It is suggested that this study should be replicated in the future with certain changes. In subsequent studies of this nature, a larger sample should be used that is more representative so that the results can be more generalizable to the larger population of individuals on antiretroviral treatment. Larger cell sizes are also recommended to explore critical biographical variables.