Adherence to antiretroviral medications and quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS in Chikankata,Livingstone and Mwinilunga districts in Zambia

Abstract

Quality of life (QoL) is a significant element in the assessment of the well-being of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA), in particular with the major rise in longevity of PLWHA. Moreover, no studies have been done in Zambia on ART adherence and quality of life in PLWHA in with the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Likert Scale (WHOQoL-Likert) instrument.The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between adherence to antiretroviral medications and quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS in urban and rural Zambia.The study was cross-sectional and descriptive. It was conducted in October 2012 from four sites, namely, Lusaka, Livingstone, Chikankata and Mwinilunga districts ART clinics respectively. It involved two hundred (200) simple randomly selected HIV-positive clients, fifty (50) from each site, who were on HAART for one to five years and consented to participate in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on demographic and clinical characteristic data, quality of life and ART adherence. QoL was assessed with WHO QoL-Likert scale.The findings in this study did not show a direct relationship between QoL and ART adherence in that some respondents with poor QoL had good adherence at the same time some with good QoL had poor adherence. The findings in the data ended up not testing the hypothesis.In conclusion, the study has failed to find enough statistical evidence to support the research hypothesis which states that as adherence to ART medications among people living with HIV and AIDS increases QoL of life will also improve. This means that statistically there is no relationship between adherence to ART medications and QoL in people living with HIV and AIDS.