Coping Strategies for Adverse Effects of Antiretroviral Therapy among Adult HIV Patients Attending University of Gondar Referral Hospital, Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background Adverse effects from antiretroviral therapy (ART) have an impact on quality of life and medication adherence. There is no clear understanding of how people manage the adverse effects of ART. The individual taking medications which cause serious adverse effects may choose to stop or reduce the medications to relieve the adverse effects. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing coping strategies for adverse effects of ART among adult human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at HIV clinic of University of Gondar Referral Hospital (UoGRH). A total of 394 study participants were recruited by systematic random sampling. Data were collected through interviewing patients. Data were entered to Epi-Info 3.5.4 and analyzed using SPSS-20.0. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patient's sociodemographic data and the adverse effects of their ART regimen. Binary and multivariate logistic regressions were used to investigate the potential predictors of nonadherence coping strategies. Results The majorities of study participants were females (66%) and aged between 35 and 44 years (38.1%). The major adverse effects reported by the participants were headache (48.2%) followed by fatigability (18%) and loss of appetite (17.5%). Coping strategies used by HIV patients for adverse effect of ART were positive emotion coping strategy (91.1%), social support seeking (76.6%), taking other medications (76.6%), information seeking (48.7%), and nonadherence (35.5%). Younger age (AOR = 29.54, 95% CI = 2.49–35.25, p = 0.007), low level of education (AOR = 5.70, 95% CI = 2.16-15.05, p < 0.001), and living far from the health institution (AOR = 2.68, 95% CI = 1.29–5.57, p = 0.008) were associated with nonadherence coping strategy to relieve the adverse effects of ART. Conclusion The present study revealed that positive emotion coping was the most commonly used strategy. Age, level of education, and distance from health institution were the predictors of nonadherence coping strategy.

Determinants of Coping Strategy among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Punjab-Pakistan

“…The majority of respondents were getting emotional and instrumental/informational support, either a medium amount or a little bit. The most commonly used coping strategies were self-distraction, acceptance, and religion, also consistent with previous studies (Deo et al, 2010;Sreelekshmi, 2015;Gelaw et al, 2018;Negi et al, 2019) but contrary to (Anima-Korang et al, 2018). While the least common were substance use, behavioural disengagement, and humour, also evidenced by (Deo et al, 2010;Folayan et al, 2017;Negi et al, 2019).…”

Incidence and predictors of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) among adult HIV positive patients on anti-retroviral treatment in Arba Minch town public health facilities, southern Ethiopia: A retrospective cohort study, 2020

“…At the facility level, as some studies indicate the commonly used solution to avert such problem with the health care provider is reassurance, single drug change and regimen modification [ 29 ]. A study done at Gondar identified that positive emotional, social support seeking, taking other medications, information seeking and non-adherence as a mechanism for coping ART related ADRs by the patients [ 27 ].…”

“…In Ethiopia, studies showed that toxicity of the drugs is the main causes (58%) for the change of the first-line regimen among HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy, which affects the limited number of our treatment options. It is also one of the primary predictor of poor adherence [25][26][27]. A study conducted in south-west Ethiopia on mortality from adverse drug reaction-related hospitalizations show that 1.5% death.…”

Challenges to nutrition management among patients using antiretroviral therapy in primary health ‘centres’ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A phenomenological study

“…Treatment knows how is low in the current study, which is inconsistent with a study conducted in Arsi [ 25 ]. Those who accessed the health institution far away (>20 km) from their home were found to more likely to use non-adherence as a coping strategy than those who were nearby (≤20 km), and this variation is might be due to the participants to the current study are using the nearby health centers because the setting is in Addis Ababa and also the study method [ 26 ].…”