“I Want to Stand on My Own Legs”: a qualitative study of antiretroviral therapy adherence among HIV-positive women in Egypt

Abstract

A review of the antiretroviral therapy (ART) literature revealed that not a single published study has examined the factors that influence patients’ adherence to HIV medications in the Arab world. To mend this gap, this qualitative study collected data via face-to-face interviews with 27 HIV-positive Egyptian women who had been on ART for at least three months. Using a thematic analysis technique, five themes were identified: fear of stigma, financial constraints, characteristics of ART, social support, and reliance on faith. Notwithstanding the overwhelming number of inhibiting factors, most patients in this study were highly motivated to achieve perfect adherence.

Keywords:

• ART
• adherence
• Egypt
• stigma
• AIDS

Acknowledgements

This study is supported by a grant from The Ford Foundation-Egypt to the first author. In addition to the HIV-positive women who participated in this study, the first author would like to thank Dr Montasser Kamal from The Ford Foundation-Egypt, Dr Hind Khattab the chairperson of the Egyptian Society for Population Studies and Reproductive Health, and all the society's staff for their support and tremendous effort to make this study successful.