A Self-Reported Adherence Measure to Screen for Elevated HIV Viral Load in Pregnant and Postpartum Women on Antiretroviral Therapy.

ABSTRACT: Maternal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a concern and monitoring adherence presents a significant challenge in low-resource settings. We investigated the association between self-reported adherence, measured using a simple three-item scale, and elevated viral load (VL) among HIV-infected pregnant and postpartum women on ART in Cape Town, South Africa. This is the first reported use of this scale in a non-English speaking setting and it achieved good psychometric characteristics (Cronbach α = 0.79). Among 452 women included in the analysis, only 12 % reported perfect adherence on the self-report scale, while 92 % had a VL <1000 copies/mL. Having a raised VL was consistently associated with lower median adherence scores and the area under the curve for the scale was 0.599, 0.65

SUBMITTER: Phillips T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5145763 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature