Background There has been an increase in the number of chronic conditions concomitantly present in HIV-infected individuals and correspondingly, in comedication. Beliefs play a crucial role in medicines adherence.

Purpose To investigate the relationship between beliefs (necessity and concerns) of HIV-infected patients about comedication and their adherence.

Material and methods We conducted a cross-sectional study between May–July 2014, that included HIV-infected patients treated with antiretroviral treatment (ART) and ≥1 additional drugs for other chronic diseases.

The variables analysed in the study were demographics (sex, age), mode of transmission, CD4⁺, HIV plasma viral load, beliefs about comedication and adherence to treatment for chronic conditions.

The Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaires (BMQ) was used to assess patients’ beliefs about drugs for additional diseases. The BMQ-Specific has two scales (necessity and concern) with five questions each that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = uncertain, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree). A total score per scale was calculated. Self-reported comedication adherence was measured using the 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS). MMAS scores were dichotomised into adherent/non-adherent.

Internal consistency within BMQ scales was measured with Cronbach’s α and their association with adherence was assessed with t-Student tests, using SPSS 20.0.

Results We included 126 patients (80.4% male, mean age 50.4 ± 8.3). Injected drug use was the main mode of transmission. 43.7% of patients presented CD4⁺ ≤ 500 cells/mm³ and 25.4%, detectable viral load. The mean number of additional medicines was 2.9 ± 2.0.

The percentage of non-adherent patients was 54.0%. Belief in necessity was positively related to self-reported adherence. No relationship between adherence and concern was found. Internal consistency for BMQ-Specific was high (Cronbach’s alfa = 0.724) which indicates high intercorrelation between items.

Conclusion Greater conviction that comedication is necessary was associated with higher self-reported adherence in HIV infected-patients, suggesting that it could be important to focus on the necessity of this treatment to improve adherence.

References And/or Acknowledgements

1. Plos One 2013;8(12):e80633

References And/or AcknowledgementsNo conflict of interest.