Quality of life improvement, social stigma and antiretroviral treatment adherence: implications for long-term HIV/AIDS care

ABSTRACT

By 2020, the Vietnamese government has committed to having 90% of patients receiving ART as well as 90% of those on ART having successful viral suppression. Factors that influence adherence to ART among patients are essential to allowing the adequate care. This study was conducted across 8 outpatient clinics in Hanoi and Nam Dinh province and included 1133 patients living with HIV. Socioeconomic factors such as marital status, education, employment as well as health-related quality of life improvements were investigated as potentially being associated with adherence rates of ART patients. Through multivariate logistic regression analysis with self-reported ART adherence and VAS scores, this study was able to identify marital status and employment as two factors associated with positive adherence scores. Similarly, health problems, stigmatization, and duration on ART were associated negatively with ART adherence. Knowing that these factors may be linked to adherence rates, they can be preemptively managed with patients to enhance adherence rates and achieve successful viral suppression.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV/AIDS
• quality of life
• stigma
• antiretroviral treatment adherence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Geolocation information

This study was conducted in Vietnam, a low-middle income country.

ORCID

Bach Xuan Tran http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5741-383X

Carl A. Latkin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7931-2116

Additional information

Funding

There was no funding for this analysis.