title: Study the drug adherence and possible factor influencing drug adherence in HIV/AIDS patients in north eastern part of India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Majority of HIV/AIDS patients who are on Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy (HAART), are not aware about drug adherence and its importance which is the most important factor for drug adherence.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the level of drug adherence in patients accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) through the National program and factor influencing drug adherence.
  
  
  METHODS
  In present study, we enrolled 102 newly diagnosed patients, among them in 79 patients, ART was started. To study the drug adherence a pretested, semistructured questionnaire was formed and patients were followed up for 6 months of the study. Pretest and posttest counseling was done to all such patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 28 patients missed the dose in 1(st) follow-up, nine patients missed in 2(nd) follow-up, eight patients missed in 3(rd) follow-up. Three patients lost follow-up in 2(nd) follow-up, three patients further lost follow-up in 3(rd) follow-up. Running out of pills (40.0%), side effect (15.5%), and family problem (13.3%), poor transport facility for taking drug (8.9%) and forgetfulness (11.1%) are five major causes related to miss dose. In females patients, drug adherence (69%) was initially less than male patients (76%) but latter on female patients (96.3%) had better adherence than males (95.2%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggest that drug adherence can be increased by proper counseling and close monitoring of the patients which may have a great role in preventing the drug resistance and ART response.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Lalit Prashant
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Meena
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Shant Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Madhukar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Anju
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bharti
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Jaya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chakravarty
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sundar
keywords: Adherence; HIV/AIDS; antiretroviral therapy adherence; counseling