ABSTRACT

 Treatment of HIV/AIDS as a chronic, controllable infection is now possible thanks to antiretroviral therapy (ART). HIV patients who receive effective therapy and follow it religiously have survival rates comparable to those of non-infected individuals. People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are given the medications without charge at authorized clinics across Nigeria. Despite being readily available, adherence to ARV medication therapy is still a serious challenge. This study was therefore aimed at assessing the adherence level to antiretroviral therapy and medication knowledge among HIV/AIDS patients in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, PEPFAR Unit.

The study comprised 400 informed volunteers who were 18 years of age or older and had been receiving antiretroviral medication for at least two months. a structured, standardized self-reporting questionnaire with questions on demographics and health-related issues, Medication adherence questions that helped to assess the level of adherence, and questions that helped to assess patients’ knowledge of their medication was used for data collection. Basic descriptive statistics, Crosstabulation, Chi-square test, and binary logistic regression analysis were carried out to analyze the data.

64.3% of the respondents were between the ages of 38 and 57, 74.8% of them were female and 25.3% were male, 59.5% of them were married, 50.3% of them had completed secondary school, 75.0% of them were self-employed, 98% of them were Christians, and their major monthly income ranged from $21,000 to 30,000. 66.5% of them were also taking two (2) medications. In 74% of the research individuals, ART compliance was seen. The number of drugs used and co-morbidity (peptic ulcer disease) were substantially (p 0.05) linked to study participants' non-adherence to ART. There was no statistically significant difference in adherence level across the age groups, gender, and level of education. There was a strong correlation between medication knowledge and adherence to ARV drugs, with the majority of study participants (64.5%) having a high knowledge of ARV medications. Hence, there is a need for medication knowledge education during counseling for both old and new patients.

Keywords: Adherence, antiretroviral medications, antiretroviral therapy (ART), People living with HIV/AIDS, medication knowledge.