Adherence to Combined Antiretroviral Therapy and Associated Factors Among People Living with HIV Attending Nekemte Specialized Hospital, Oromia, Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: For people living with HIV, to have sustainable viral suppression and better clinical outcomes, they should have a high level of adherence to antiretroviral therapy. In the treatment of human immune deficiency, antiretroviral therapy adherence became the major challenge in both developed and developing countries. The level of antiretroviral therapy differs across the settings. This study aimed to assess the level of combined ART adherence and associated factors among adult people living with HIV attending Nekemte Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia. METHODS: The institution-based cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted from August 2017 to September 2017. A total number of 284 clients participated in the study and a simple random sampling technique was used to allocate study participants. Data were entered into Excel and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariate analysis was conducted to identify candidate variables for multivariate analysis at p-value <0.2. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the predictors of non-adherence to ART. P-value <0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. RESULTS: About 81% of the study participants adhered to combined anti-retroviral therapy. Mentioned reasons for missing ART medications were simply forgot to take medication (44.4%), lack of transportation (21%), to avoid side effects (11.4%), do not want significant others to notice taking medication (11.4%) and felt sick (11.4%). Not using reminder (AOR=4.98 (1.65, 15.02)), poor knowledge on ART (AOR=2.79 (1.49, 5.25)), and engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse (AOR=2.16 (1.15, 4.05)) were significantly associated with non-adherence to combined ART. CONCLUSION: About 81% of study participants adhered to combined ART, and poor knowledge about ART, engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse and not using the reminder were significantly associated with nonadherence to combined ART. Efforts to increase adherence levels should be encouraged.