Adherence to Anti retrovlral Therapy Protocol among Teachers in Homa bay District of Homa bay County Nyanza Province - Kenya

Abstract

Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is a lifesaving treatment for HIV positive people. Adherence to treatment protocol is extremely important to ensuring that drug efficacy does not fail with time. Research findings by other researchers in developed countries indicate that adherence to ART treatment protocol is a problem.. It implies that in developing countries like Kenya which have poor health infrastructure the problem is much bigger. The research was conducted in Homa-Bay District which is a typical rural district in Kenya where poverty is rampant among the rural population, the standard of education is not only low but 3}~ in the decline. The district ~l!'<Q h~ poor health infrastructure. This research investigated adherence to ART among teachers in Homa-Bay who form the bulk of the Government civil servants. Homa-Bay District is hard hit with HIV/ AIDS with prevalence rate of 28% this is threatening to underminethe standard of education in the district. Adherence to ART protocol among teachers on ART, will serve as a strong indicator of the extent of this problem on the general population. Research method-which was used was observational study, mainly by using cross sectional survey. Snow ball sampling was used, Methods of data collection were by using structured questionnaire, analyzed by statistical package fur social sciences (SPSS) Computer Software. The data collected was tested using a Chi square to test the hypothesis with confidence limit of p= 0.05. A sample size of 300 teachers was used. The findings of this research revealed that socio demographic factors such as age. marital status and drug and substance abuse do influence adherence to ART protocol only 10.8]&/0 of the sampled 300 teachers adhered to ART protocol These fmdings were significant. The outcome of this research will be used by stake holders In the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health to educate people on ARV adherence to treatment protocol.