Adherence to antiretroviral therapy in patients with HIV/AIDS at the Pedro Borras Polyclinic

Introduction: adherence to antiretroviral therapy has increased the quality of life and reduced mortality in patients with HIV/AIDS. Objective: to characterize adherence to antiretroviral therapy in patients with HIV/AIDS belonging to the "Pedro Borras Astorga" Polyclinic of Pinar del Río municipality, January to December 2018. Method: a descriptive and transversal observational study was carried out, the universe was constituted by 48 patients with HIV/AIDS under ART. The information was obtained by documentary review of medical records, epidemiological surveys and computerized HIV registry of MINSAP. Sociodemographic, clinical and therapeutic variables were selected to characterize the patients according to adherence criteria and to identify factors associated with ART. Absolute frequencies, percentages, OR, Spearman's correlation and chi-square were used for data processing and analysis. Results: there was a higher percentage of non-adherent patients, factors such as: older age, male sex, being single, homosexual, higher school level, middle technical and workers, longer time of diagnosis, CD4 > 350 cell/ml, viral load< 1000 copies, stage 2 of the disease and first line of ART, characterized adherence to ART. Conclusions: in this research there is a predominance of HIV/AIDS patients not adherent to antiretroviral therapy, identifying as factors statistically associated to adequate adherence: compliance with antiretroviral treatment, homosexual sexual preference, higher school level, adequate immunological and virological status. Optimizing adherence to ART is essential to ensure treatment efficacy and improve the quality of life of patients.