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Adherence Counseling and Reminder Text Messaging Improves Uptake Of Antiretroviral Therapy in Western Kenya. Authors: Magomere Robert Murima Ng’ang’a. Introduction. For treatment of HIV/AIDS to be effective high rate of adherence is essential .
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Adherence Counseling and Reminder Text Messaging Improves Uptake Of Antiretroviral Therapy in Western Kenya Authors: Magomere Robert MurimaNg’ang’a
Introduction • For treatment of HIV/AIDS to be effective high rate of adherence is essential. • Mobile phone communication is one of the method that has been used to improve adherence. • The information on use of mobile in health technology is still low. • We sought to find out the effect of short message services on adherence to Antiretroviral therapy
Objective • To establish the effect of adherence counseling and reminder text messages on improving patients' adherence to antiretroviral therapy and viral suppression.
Methodology • A randomized controlled trial was conducted among non-adherents patients on HAART in Bumula sub-County Hospital. • Patients were randomized (1:1) to a mobile phone short message service (SMS) intervention or standard care. • Patients in the intervention group received adherence counseling in addition to the weekly SMS messages. • Primary outcomes were self-reported ART adherence (>95% of prescribed doses in the past 30 days) and plasma HIV viral RNA load suppression (<400 copies/ml) at 12 months.
Results • A total of 176 patients were enrolled in the study. • Results showed that 86.9% of the participants in intervention group and 55.8% in control group achieved adherence (p<0.05). • Results showed that 84.5% of the participants in intervention group had undetectable viral load while 52% of the participants in control group had undetectable viral load (p<0.05).
Conclusion and recommendation • Adherence counseling and text message reminders improve adherence of patients on HAART. • Improvement of adherence leads to viral suppression • Viral suppression leads to improve the quality of life