Correlates of Non-adherence to Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) among Adolescents at Namungalwe Health Centre IV Iganga District.

Abstract

This investigation was a step towards creating awareness about reasons as to why, in spite of availability of ART drugs, the rate of adherence is still low, and there are various cases of non-adherence. This has increased the rate of transmitting opportunistic infections such as diarrhea, whooping cough, Tuberculosis, and related infections that make use of opportunity of weakened immunity in the body. The study was at Namungalwe Health Center IV, in Iganga District. The study comprised a sample of 63 out of 90 respondents categorized into; midwives, clinicians, expert clients, and HIV infected adolescents. A questionnaire structured into items explaining non-adherence was set-up and distributed to respondents in the various categories to generate results. Analysis was done using principal component analysis to extract significant factors. The validity of study was determined through pre-survey tests using three experts who cross checked questions set with study objectives and recommended the most appropriate questions. On the other hand, reliability was determined using the Crombach Alpha Model, results of which indicated that socio-demographic factors measured 0.796 for 9 items, and health facility related factors measuring 0.831 for 28 items. The study used stratified sampling to categorize respondents by gender and designation, and simple random sampling techniques to select individual respondents from each category. Results indicated that socio-demographic factors such as sex, age, education level, nature of caretaker, distance to health facility, and time of diagnosis, reason to go for HIV testing, time of starting treatment, and feeling of patients during treatment predict non-adherence to ART among adolescents. In addition, Facility related factors influence non-adherence to ART among adolescents.