Assessment of Adherence to Antiretroviral Medications and Associated Factors Using MMAS8 Among Clients Attending the Care and Support Clinic in a Tertiary Health Centre in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is one of the most critical factors of viral suppression. A high level of adherence (>95%) is required for antiretroviral therapy to be effective. Inadequate or non-adherence to ARV drugs is a recurrent index in treating clients receiving antiretroviral medications and is widespread among clients with chronic illness. This study aims to determine the medication adherence rate and assess the factors associated with medication adherence among clients attending the antiretroviral clinic of a tertiary hospital. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the ART clinic of a tertiary health facility. Data was collected from 258 People Living with HIV (PLWHIV) aged 18 years and above through a simple random sampling technique using an interviewer administered questionnaire. Analysis was done using IBM SPSS version 23. The mean score of adherence to ART using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale-8 (MMAS8) was 7.2 ±1.2 SD. Most of the respondents 186 (72.1%) did not experience forgetfulness related to taking their medication, and nearly all 242 (93.8%) of the 258 respondents did not miss their drugs the previous week. Sex (χ2 = 8.16, p=0.02) and viral load (χ2 = 27.14,p<0.001) of the respondents were the only factors found to be statistically significantly associated with medication adherence. This study showed MMAS8 to be a more sensitive measure of medication adherence compared to the seven-day recall. The study also establishes a strong association between medication adherence and viral suppression among PLWHIV.