Incidence and Predictors of Loss to Follow-Up Among Adults on Antiretroviral Therapy in South Gondar Governmental Hospitals, Ethiopia: Retrospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Approximately 38.4 million adult people worldwide live with HIV, of which the majority live in Africa. In Ethiopia increasing the quality of life to HIV patients and preventing HIV transmission are challenging. Even though test-and-treat strategy is applied for early enrollment to ART, poor retention and loss to follow-up are hindering the care. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the incidence and predictors of loss to follow-up among adult HIV patients on ART in South Gondar governmental hospitals, September 11, 2017–September 10, 2022. METHODS: A multi-facility-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted. Study subjects were assigned using simple random sampling methods by their medical record numbers. The data were entered into EPI data version 3.0.2 and exported to STATA version 17 for analysis. The Kaplan–Meier failure function was employed to determine the overall failure estimates. Cox proportional hazard model was tailored for both bi-variable and multivariable. Variables at p-value <0.05 with 95% CI were significantly associated with loss to follow-up. RESULTS: In this study, about 559 adult HIV survivors were included, and the response rate was 98%. The mean age and standard deviation (±SD) of study subjects were 36.6±9.3 years. The incidence rate of loss to follow-up was 6.7 per 100 person-years (95% CI: 5.6, 8.1). Educational status [AHR: 1.68 (95% CI: 1.04, 2.72)], substance use [AHR: 2.38 (95% CI: 1.50, 3.75)], and ART adherence [AHR: 3.33 (95% CI: 1.38, 8.08)] were significant determinants to loss to follow-up. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, the study finding reported that the incidence of loss to follow-up was low. HIV patients who did not have formal education, substance users, and poor ART adherence were at greater hazard of being lost to follow-up. In order to mitigate the rate of loss to follow-up, it is recommended to strengthen the available intervention modalities.