HIV/AIDS: Research and Palliative Care (Feb 2022)
A Comparison of Adherence and CD4 Cell Count with Respect to Virologic Failure Among HIV-Infected Adults Under Combination Antiretroviral Therapy (cART) at Felege Hiwot Teaching and Specialized Hospital, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
Abstract
Awoke Seyoum Tegegne,1 Mitiku Wale Muluneh,2 Setegn Bayabil Agegn,2 Hailegebrael Birhan Biresaw2 1Department of Statistics, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia; 2Department of Statistics, Debre Tabor University, Debre Tabor, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Mitiku Wale Muluneh, Tel + 251-923-23-27-68, Email [email protected]: Medication adherence plays a significant in the success of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Therefore, the current investigation was conducted with the objective of comparing adherence and CD4 cell count with respect to virologic failure among HIV-infected adults under cART.Methods: A retrospective study design was conducted on 792 randomly selected HIV-infected adult patients who initiated first-line cART enrolled in the first 10 months of 2012 and followed up to August 2018 by using a simple random sampling technique based on their identification number.Results: The main outcome for the current investigation was the virologic failure which was decreased with successive visits. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for adherence and CD4 cell count change were 0.68 and 0.63 with χ2 = 21.2; p-value < 0.001 for the 12-month assessment. Similarly, these areas for the 36th and 60th month assessments were 0.71 and 0.66, with χ2 = 23.2; p-value < 0.001, and 0.73 and 0.71 with χ2 = 24.3; p-value < 0.001 for adherence and CD4 cell count, respectively.Conclusion: Pill count adherence was more accurate compared to CD4 cell count change for assessing virologic responses. Therefore, because of its easy access, simple use, cost-effectiveness, and accuracy, the adherence to cART was in favor of CD4 cell count change for monitoring the healthcare quality of HIV-infected patients.Keywords: adherence to cART, CD4 cell count, viral load, HIV, virologic failure, Ethiopia
