Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Health

Advisor

Frazier Beatty

Abstract

Adherence to ARV medicines is essential to halt HIV progression, increase CD4 counts, decrease virologic impact, and improve quality of life for the infected people. However, sustaining good adherence among adolescents and young adults (AYA) has been a challenge caused by various problems such as distance to clinic, improved CD4 count which lead to complacency in adherence, and the nature of the environment. This was a quantitative, retrospective, correlational, cross-sectional study anchored by the transtheoretical model, which was used to understand how adherence rate among the study population was impacted by the predictive factors. Secondary data was collected from patient's medical records at the Federal Medical Center, Makurdi in Benue State, Nigeria. Univariate analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics. The study sample size of 656 patients was drawn from AYA ages 15-24 years. Independent t tests showed a statistically significant difference in adherence rates between rural (94%) and urban (89%) AYA, t (424) = -3.280, .001, p -?¤ .05. There was also a statistically significant difference in adherence rates of ART for patients who lived within 50 kilometers of the hospital and those who lived more than 50 kilometers away from the hospital, t (509) = -2.37, .018, p -?¤ .05. Also, there was a statistically significant correlation between adherence rate to ART and CD4 of less than 500 cells/mm3, R = .214, NS = .003, p -?¤ .05. This study provides findings for HIV implementing partners (IPs) and relevant health professionals in Nigeria useful for designing strategies that would improve adherence rate to antiretroviral therapy among AYA in Nigeria.

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