Factors related to adherence to antiretroviral treatment in a specialized care facility

Abstract

SUMMARY The objective of this study was to verify the level of adherence to antiretroviral treatment and its associated factors. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study based on data retrieved from medical records. To achieve this, we used a questionnaire composed of sociodemographic and clinical information recorded from patients aged between thirteen and fifty-nine years who attended a specialized service from 2007 to 2014. The chi-square test was performed to verify the association of the outcome with the categorical variables. Continuous variables were compared through the Student t-test. Thirteen variables were analyzed in the bivariate model, resulting in the selection of the following variables to the multivariate model (p<0.20) age of discovery (p=0.12), age (p=0.14), skin color (p=0.12), level of education (p=0.03), time since HIV diagnosis (p<0.001) and AIDS case (p<0.001). Among the six variables selected for the multivariate model, cases of aids (p<0.001) remained significant. We concluded that having aids decreases the probability of non-adherence to antiretroviral treatment by 92%. These results indicate that symptomatic patients have better adherence to therapy.