Abstract:
The purposes of this cross-sectional research were to study (1) medication adherence to antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected/AIDs patients in the national access to antiretroviral programs for people HIV/AIDS, (2) factors influencing patients' medication adherence, and (3) relationship between medication adherence and patients' stage of change (SOC). The data collection was carried out during January to June 2006 in 3 hospitals: Damnoensaduak, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Medical Center, and Somdetphraphuttalertla. Two hundred seventy six patients were included in the study. The proportion of male and female patients was almost equal with an average age of 38.9 +- 8.4 years old. The majority of patients had education <= elementary level with income just enough for their living, Most of them denied alcohol consumption, smoking, and other drug abuse. At the initial of therapy, most patients had disease severity in categories B and C. GPO-vir was most prescribed to patients for the average duration of 19.6+-12.9 months. The medication adherence measured by GEEMA questionnaires, medication-taking diary, and pill counts methods were 91.7, 95.5 and 97.3% respectively. Correlation analysis using adherence score from GEEMA revealed that factors affecting medication adherence were (1) patient factors including age, history of alcohol consumption, medicine and disease knowledge, habit strength, and self-efficacy in medication adherence, (2) social factors including income and two dimensions of social support (tangible support and affectionate support), (3) the relationship between health care team and patients. However, medicine and disease factors were found no significant correlation. When these factors were entered into the multiple regression analysis, six factors including history of alcohol consumption, relationship between health care team and patients, medicine and disease knowledge, age, self-efficacy, and social support significantly explained 28.6% of variance of patients' medication adherence. Further analysis revealed that different stages of change required different factors in explaining medication adherence. The patients were mainly in the action (A) and maintence (M) stages of change (32.2% and 35.0%, respectively). When grouping patients in precontemplation (PC), contemplation (C), and preparation (P) stages as one group, the average adherence scores of PC-C-P, A , and M stages of change were 90.2%, 93.6%, 95.2%, respectively. The comparison of medication adherence among 3 groups (PC-C-P, A and M) using ANOVA found significant difference between PC-C-P and M. In conclusion, as the stage of change was improved patients' adherence was increased. Patients' stage of change had to be taken into account when designing multifaceted strategies to improve and support patients' adherence to antiretroviral therapy.