Virological Treatment Failure Among Adult HIV/AIDS Patients from Selected Hospitals of North Shoa Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

PURPOSE: The study aimed at assessing the magnitude of virological treatment failure and associated factors among HIV reactive adults at selected hospitals. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 498 study participants who started their first-line HAART from August 2015 to December 2018. Data were collected from patients’ charts and face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. The bivariable analysis was executed to select candidate variables at a p-value of less than 0.2. Multivariable logistic regression (forward, stepwise, and conditional) analysis was used to find factors associated with virological failure at a significant level of 5%. A model adequacy check was done by Hosmer and Lemeshow test (p = 0.57). RESULTS: More than half 290 (58.2%) of the study participants were women. The median (IQR) age at ART initiation was 40 (15) years. The median (IQR) duration when a virological failure occurred from the initiation of ART treatment was 96 (72) months. The prevalence of virological treatment failure was 10.24% (95% CI: 7.57%, 12.91%). Poor ART drug adherence (AOR = 4.54; 95% CI: 2.09, 9.87), CD4 count less than 250 cell/μL (AOR = 24.88; 95% CI: 11.73, 52.81) and poor quality of life (QoL) (AOR = 2.65; 95% CI: 1.12, 6.25) were independent predictors of virological treatment failure. CONCLUSION: The magnitude of virological ART treatment failure in this study was relatively high. Poor ART drug adherence, patients’ having lower CD4 count and poorer quality of life were predictors of treatment failure. Thus, intervention programs that enrich patients’ health-related quality of life should be implemented. Moreover, counseling that supplements the importance of drug adherence and reduction of risks that lower CD4 counts should be given emphasis which in turn helps to prevent first-line ART treatment failure.