Patient satisfaction and treatment adherence of stable HIV infected patients

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: South Africa had a 75% increase in access to Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) in 2011. Effectivestrategies to improve access and manage care need to be implemented into ART programs.ART adherence clubs is a new strategy that is being implemented in various parts of SouthAfrica. The aim of the study was to investigate whether stable Human Immunodeficiency Virus(HIV) infected patients on ART who receive care in ART adherence clubs are more satisfiedand more adherent to treatment than those who receive care in Primary Health Care (PHC)clinics.A quantitative cross-sectional study was done to compare patient satisfaction and treatmentadherence in ART adherence clubs and PHC clinics in the Eden district within the WesternCape.The study sample included 320 participants (98 club and 222 clinic) from 13 PHC clinics (sixwith clubs and seven without clubs). One clinic was used for the pilot study and excluded fromthe data analysis. Stable HIV infected patients were recruited when they attendedappointments for the club or clinic. Established questionnaires were used to measure patientsatisfaction and self-reported treatment adherence. The questionnaires were completed bythe research team for participants from September 2014 to March 2015 in Afrikaans, Englishand Xhosa. Descriptive and inferential statistics was done with STATISTICA and regressionanalysis in SPSS. The guideline for determining significance was 5% (p<0.05).The analyses showed that higher levels of satisfaction are predicted with club participants thanwith clinic participants. There was no significant difference between clinic and club participantswith regards to estimated adherence (p>0.05). However, the odds of being adherent was morelikely in participants that were satisfied (p<0.05, 95%, CI 0.252 to 0.882).ART adherence clubs therefore provide a service that patients may be more satisfied with,although they are not more adherent to treatment.PHC clinics with large patient volumes could use ART adherence clubs to reduce patient loadsand to improve satisfaction of their stable HIV infected patients. Further research of patientexperiences in ART adherence clubs may provide insight to the link between patientsatisfaction and treatment adherence.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University