Adherence, satisfaction and health-related quality of life in HIV-infected patients with antiretroviral therapy in Spain. The ARPAS study

Abstract

To determine the relationship between satisfaction with antiretroviral therapy (ART), adherence and quality of life (QoL) in adult patients diagnosed with HIV infection and ART according to the posologic load. Multicenter, observational and cross-sectional study. Socio-demographic, clinical and of posologic load (1, 2-4 or > 4 tablets/day), adherence (SMAQ, dispensation recordings (DR) and visual analogical scale), satisfaction (ESART questionnaire) and QoL (MOS-HIV) variables were gathered. An adherent patient was defined as the one presenting simultaneously adherence according to SMAQ and DR > 95%. 328 patients (76% men; 46.0 ± 9.2 years) were evaluated. The posology of 1 tablet/day, 2-4 tablets/day and > 4 tablets/day occurred in 29%, 37% and 34% of the patients, respectively. Although the evaluation performed through the SMAQ questionnaire and the VAS scale independently showed statistically significant differences in favor of the 1 tablet/day scheme, the percentage (49%) of adherent patients according to the combined variable did not differ between the groups based on the posologic load. The satisfaction with ART and QoL were high in the three groups, being the 1 tablet/day scheme the one related with higher satisfaction and lower rate of adverse effects on fat metabolism. There were no differences in patients' satisfaction by the adherence level. Adherence, satisfaction with ART and QoL of the patients with ART are high. Although higher in patients taking 1 tablet/day, the satisfaction did not differ according to the level of adherence and no correlation was observed between satisfaction with ART and quality of life.