Abstract

HARO MARQUEZ, Carmen; CANTUDO CUENCA, María Rosa; ALMEIDA GONZALEZ, Carmen Victoria  and  MORILLO VERDUGO, Ramón. Patients' adherence-related beliefs about medicines prescribed for long-term conditions in HIV patients. Farm Hosp. [online]. 2015, vol.39, n.1, pp.23-28. ISSN 2171-8695.  https://dx.doi.org/10.7399/fh.2015.39.1.8127.

Purpose: To assess adherence and beliefs about long-term medicines for other chronic conditions among HIV-infected patients as well as to evaluate their relationship. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted from may to july 2014 in HIV-infected patients treated with antiretroviral treatment (ART) and >1 long-term medicines for other chronic diseases. The variables analysed in the study were demographics: sex, age, education, employment status, living situation; clinical: mode of transmission, HIV plasma viral load ,T-CD4+, CDC classification; and pharmacotherapeutics: type of ART, adherence to long-term medicines for other chronic conditions using the 4-item Morisky Medication Adherence (MMAS) Scale. MMAS scores were dichotomised into adherent/non-adherent. The Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaires (BMQ) was used to assess patients' beliefs about the long-term medicines. The BMQ-Specific has two scales (necessity and concern) with five questions each that uses a 5-point Likert scale. Internal consistency within BMQ scales was measured with Cronbach's αand their association with adherence was assessed with t-Student tests, using SPSS 20.0. Results: We included 126 patients (80.4% male, mean age 49.0±8.3). The mean of long-term medicines was 2.9±2.0. The percentage of non-adherent patients was 54.0%. 63.5% of patients had AIDS, that showed statistically significant relationship with non-adherence. Concerns were negatively related to self-reported adherence (14.6±5.7 vs. 12.1±6.1; p=0.019). No relationship between adherence and necessity was found (17.3±5.6 vs. 18.8±4.4; p=0.188). Internal consistency for BMQ-Specific was high (Cronbach's α=0.724). Conclusion: Higher concerns are associated with higher self-reported adherence to long-term medicines in HIV infected-patients.

Keywords : Adherence; Hiv; Beliefs; Polypharmacy.

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