Sociodemographic factors associated with adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV patients receiving free Antiretrovirals at Bapong Community Health Centre.

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this quantitative study was to establish the sociodemographic factors associated with adherence among HIV/AIDS patients at Bapong Community Health Centre (CHC) in order to make recommendations to improve adherence to ART.The researcher distributed 37 self-completion questionnaires to all the 37 patients at the ART clinic at Bapong CHC, all of which were completed. The research population included all the HIV-positive patients attending the Bapong CHC aged eighteen years old and above and were on ART for more than thirty days. Thirty-seven (37) patients were included in the study out of the 1200 patients attending the Bapong CHC by randomly sampling five patient file numbers of the patients attending the ART clinic at the Bapong CHC on a particular day. The study was conducted over a period of four months with data collection and analysis conducted in less than a month, in January 2012.The researcher found that the numbers in this research study were generally too small with only one statistically significant result, of all the sociodemographic factors that were investigated - that of those whose CD counts were less than 50ml/uL at the start of treatment were more likely to default than those who had higher CD levels (Odds ratio 8.33, p value 0.03 - Fisher exact). Although the other findings were not significant, the study showed findings that were very important to Bapong CHC. Recommendations were made to improve ART adherence, and to conduct another study with larger samples to achieve statistical significant findings.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University