Monitoring adherence to antiretroviral therapy among adolescents in Southern Uganda: comparing Wisepill to Self‐report in predicting viral suppression in a cluster‐randomized trial

INTRODUCTION: Optimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence is crucial for improved patient outcomes; however, ART adherence among adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) is low. Also, the performance of various adherence measures among ALHIV is under contention. We monitored ART adherence and compared Self‐report (SR) and Wisepill electronic monitoring (EM) performance in measuring ART adherence and predicting HIV viral suppression among ALHIV. METHODS: Between January 2014 and December 2015, we recruited 702 ALHIV aged 10–16 years into our cluster‐randomized controlled trial (2012–2018) in 39 clinics in Uganda. The intervention included a long‐term savings child development account, four micro‐enterprise workshops and 12 mentorship sessions. Using the entire sample, we performed multilevel logistic regression to predict monthly ART adherence trends for the first year of follow‐up. Since it is possible that the intervention had different effects on SR and EM adherence, we used participants in the control arm only to compare adherence using SR and EM and to calculate their sensitivity and specificity in predicting viral suppression. RESULTS: There was a significant decline in adherence for each month throughout the entire follow‐up period regardless of the group assigned. Good ART adherence was measured at 79.2% (75.2–82.6%) and 97.0% (95.4–98.1%) using EM and SR, respectively. Overall, 64.3% (60.6–67.9%) had suppressed viral loads. The specificities for EM and SR in predicting viral non‐suppression were 80.4% (73.6–85.7%) and 96.7% (93.3–98.4%), while the sensitivities were 22.9% (15.0–33.3%) and 1.8% (0.4–6.9%), respectively. The area under the curve was low for both EM and SR, at 53.6% (45.7–61.5%) and 56.2% (53.2–59.3%), respectively. There was high agreement (78%) between SR and EM in monitoring adherence. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlighted the need for strategies for sustained optimal adherence. SR and EM measure adherence with a considerable agreement; however, neither is an accurate predictor of virological outcome. There is still a need for an acceptable, feasible and affordable method that predicts viral suppression among ALHIV.