Background and importance Adherence to antiretroviral treatment is an important clinical aspect for the follow-up of HIV patients. The commercialisation of simplified presentations could help improve adherence.

Aim and objectives To compare adherence with antiretroviral treatment of HIV patients based on the number of daily tablets.

Material and methods This was a descriptive retrospective analysis. Adherence data were extracted from the PRISMA-APD outpatient dispensing programme and medical records were reviewed at Diraya. Data were collected from two cohorts: patients whose treatment consisted of one daily tablet and patients treated with two daily tablets. Patients who had been in treatment for at least 1 year were included. The selected schemes were: emtricitabine (FTC) 200 mg/tenofovir disoproxil (TDF) 245 mg associated with an integrase or protease inhibitor or efavirenz (EFV) 600 mg/FTC 200 mg/TDF 245 mg. The χ² test was used for comparison between data series of the two patient subgroups.

Results A total of 101 patients with active antiretroviral treatment were included continuously from October 2018 to September 2019, inclusive. Seventeen patients were excluded due to insufficient treatment time. The study included 43 patients treated with the FTC/TDF scheme associated with an integrase or protease inhibitor, and 41 patients were treated with a simplified scheme, EFV/FTC/TDF. The arithmetic mean of adherence for the two patient cohorts was calculated. The result was 90% (88.2–94.8) in patients with the FTC/TDF scheme associated with a third drug and 94% (92.4–97.2) for the simplified scheme. After performing the χ², p=0.153 was obtained, so the difference between the two subgroups was not statistically significant.

Conclusion and relevance Adherence with treatment in our study exceeded 90% and was considered acceptable. Patients with more simplified treatments presented greater adherence with antiretroviral treatment in absolute value, although these differences were not statistically significant and could be due to chance. It is necessary to carry out new multicentre studies that include a greater number of patients to achieve more conclusive results.

References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.