Effect of an Empowerment Intervention on Antiretroviral Drug Adherence in Thai Youth

Abstract

A pilot study was conducted to determine effects of an empowerment intervention on antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence among Thai youth living with HIV/AIDS. It compared two groups of 23 young persons (15–24 years) who receive ART from AIDS clinics at two community hospitals. One hospital's patients served as the experimental group, and the other as a control group. The experimental groups attended five sessions that empowered them to take control of their own health. The control group received the standard of care. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square statistics. Before the empowerment, no one from the experimental group or the control group had ART adherence ≥ 95%. After the intervention, the 82.6% of the experimental group had ≥ 95% adherence compared to the control group, which had 21.7% adherence (p < .0001). The empowerment intervention resulted in a significant increase in ART adherence among Thai youth.

Keywords:

• antiretroviral drug adherence
• empowerment
• HIV/AIDS
• youth living with HIV/AIDS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would also like to thank the directors and nurses at HIV clinics of the study hospitals for kindly supporting this project; the youth living with HIV/AIDS, and others who provided information and assisted with the data collection.

FUNDING

The authors extend thanks to the National Research University Project under Thailand's Office of the Higher Education Commission for financial support. This study was also partially supported by the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council, by the Graduate School, Chiang Mai University, and by the Baylor-UT Houston Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), a program funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (AI036211).