| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that influence non adherence to ART among HIV positive clients at Chikankata Mission hospital ART clinic. The objectives of the study were to determine the patient's knowledge and attitude on the use of ART, to explore the clients knowledge on the effects of non adherence to ART drugs and to assess how often adherence counseling was given to HIV positive clients. The study intended to verify the outcome of the hypotheses which stipulated that when the level of education increases, adherence to ART also increased and when inadequate health education was given to clients concerning adherence to treatment, non adherence rate were expected to increase.
A descriptive non experimental design study was conducted from October to November, 2011 on HIV positive clients who were not adhering to ART. A non probability sampling method was used to select a total number of fifty (50) HIV positive clients. Data was collected using a structured interview.
The results revealed that 26% of the respondents had high knowledge while 74% had medium knowledge. To ensure that clients acquire adequate knowledge there was need for the staff at the ART clinic to give clients information on HIV each time they visited the ART clinic. The study showed that majority of the respondents 56% had low economic status, 24% had medium status and 20% had high economic status. This contributed to the difficulties experienced by respondents in attending regular scheduled clinic visits, considering that most of them resided far from the health centre. The rain season too exerted its own impact, in that the roads become impassible due to flooding. Therefore, it became inevitable that some clients had to miss their scheduled clinic visits. The study further revealed that 68% of the clients were not counseled at each visit. Majority of the respondents (96%) had a positive attitude towards ART and 88% of them had family support. | en_US |
