Article Text
Abstract
Background Comorbid chronic conditions have increased among HIV-infected patients. Little work has studied adherence rates for long-term medicines (LTMs).
Purpose To assess adherence to other LTMs (non-antiretroviral therapy) among HIV-infected patients as well as to evaluate its relationship with clinical and therapeutic factors.
Material and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from May to July 2014 in HIV-infected patients treated with ART and ≥1 LTM. The following variables were collected: sex, age, living situation, employment status, mode of transmission, T-CD4, viral load, CDC classification, type of ART and adherence to other LTM (non-antiretroviral treatment), using the 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale. The chi-squared test was applied to examine the role of the different variables on adherence, using SPSS 20.0.
Results 126 patients were included (80.4% male, mean age 50.4 ± 8.3). Injection drug use was the main mode of transmission (61.9%). The median T-CD4 was 538.5 cells/mm3 (IQR: 341.1–778.2). Most of patients presented T-CD4 ≥ 500 cells/mm3 (56.3%) and undetectable viral load (74.6%). 63.5% of them had AIDS. ART was mainly (36.5%) two nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) with one non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI). The percentage of patients adherent to other LTMs (non-antiretroviral therapy) was 46.0%. The variable AIDS exhibited a statistically significant relationship with non-adherence (OR = 2.2; CI [1.1–4.7]; p = 0.041). The most common long-term medicines were sedatives and anxiolytics (42.9%), lipid-lowering drugs (35.7%), antihypertensives (33.3%), gastrointestinals (28.6%), antidepressants (15.1%), antidiabetics (12.7%), analgesics (11.1%), antiasthmatics (9.5%) and cardiovascular drugs (87.9%).
Conclusion Patients showed a low level of adherence to other LTMs. This study allowed us to attempt to educate HIV-infected patients with suboptimal adherence.
References and/or acknowledgements
Cantudo-Cuenca MR, Jiménez-Galán R, Almeida-Gonzalez CV, et al. Concurrent use of comedications reduces adherence to antiretroviral therapy among HIV-infected patients. J Manag Care Pharm 2014;20(8):844–50
References and/or acknowledgementsNo conflict of interest.