Ensuring adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment is one of the key strategies that will delay emergence of resistant strains of the virus and ensure durability of the present regimens. Health care workers are not easily able to identify patients who may or may not adhere to treatment; formal measurement of adherence provides an opportunity for identifying patients who may require adherence support measures.

The USAID-supported RPM Plus Program provided technical assistance to South Africa’s Department of Health (DOH) in the Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment Plan for the development of strategies for adherence monitoring and measurement. The collaboration between the DOH and RPM Plus led to the development of a multi-method adherence assessment tool based on previously validated elements including self-report, visual analogue scale, pill identification test, and pill count.

The use of this tool is expected to standardize adherence measurement in ART clinics and facilitate comparison of adherence rates and adherence support measures across facilities, thus leading to identification of support measures that are associated with higher adherence rates.

• Click here to view the abstract on Development of a multi-method medication adherence assessment tool suitable for antiretroviral therapy facilities in resource-constrained settings presented at the 2006 APHA conference.

< Back to main AMR page