Abstract:
Non-adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is one of the significant causes
of treatment failure. This quasi-experimental research was conducted to examine the
effect of the counseling program using motivational interviewing on adherence to
ART in People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) at Bamrasnaradura Infectious
Disease Institute. The subjects were recruited using purposive sampling, and were
randomly assigned into two groups. Each group was composed of 30 subjects. The
control group was provided with the usual nursing care while the experimental group
was provided with the counseling program. Data collection was carried out twice,
before and immediately after the intervention over a four week period. The Visual
Analog Scale (VAS) was used to assess medication adherence.
The research findings revealed that the average post-test scores of the
experimental group concerning knowledge about HIV/AIDS, health beliefs and
adherence to ART were significantly higher than their average pre-test scores.
Furthermore, the average post-test scores of the experimental group were significantly
greater than those of the control group at the level of .05. This shows that providing
these subjects with the counseling program using motivational interviewing improved
their adherence to ART with appropriate approach accordingly with their stage of
change. Motivational interviewing via telephone counseling follow-up gave positive
reinforcement and enhanced adherence to ART. Therefore this counseling program
should be used to improve adherence to ART in PLWHA and could potentially used
to enhance medication adherence in other chronically-ill patients.