Factors Associated With Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of sociodemographic characteristics, patient perceptions, and patient characteristics including spirituality, self-reported adherence, and highly active antiretroviral therapy. The convenience sample consisted of 120 English-speaking adults (60% male, 35% female, 5% transgendered) with HIV/AIDS from two HIV service agencies in a large metropolitan city in the southeastern United States. The mean self-reported adherence was 83.1% (SD = 15.7%). Adherence was significantly correlated with perceived support and absence of barriers, strong intentions to adhere, perceived effectiveness of the medications, higher levels of perceived general health, fewer years of HIV disease, and fewer years on antiretroviral medications. Existential well-being (e.g., viewing life as positive and having meaning) was a weak significant correlate. Backward regression analysis was conducted to identify a parsimonious model of predictors of adherence. The final model included presence of support and absence of barriers, fewer years of HIV infection, no current alcohol use, perceived severity of HIV, existential well-being, and male gender. This model explained 19.4% of the variance in adherence (observed F[6, 100] = 5.6, p < .0001).

Key words:  adherence , antiretroviral medications , HAART , spirituality