Highly active antiretroviral therapy adherence and its determinants in selected regions in Indonesia

Background: highly active antiretroviral therapy (haart) can reduce morbidity and mortality of hiv-infected patients. however, it depends upon adherence to medication. the objective of this study was to examine the adherence to haart and to evaluate individual patient characteristics i.e. self-efficacy, depression level, and social support and to finally determine haart adherence in selected regions in indonesia. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted in jakarta, malang, bandung, makasar and banda aceh. the subject of the study was hiv-infected patients who were older than 13 years old and had taken haart for at least a month. they were recruited consecutively then asked how many pills they had missed during the previous month. poor adherence can be stated if the percentage of adherence rate is below 95%. hiv treatment adherence self-efficacy scale (hivases), beck depression inventory (bdi-ii) and interpersonal support evaluation list (isel) was adapted to assess self-efficacy, depression level and social support, respectively. results: we found that 96 % (n=53) of the subjects adhered to haart. there were no associations between adherence with self-efficacy, depression level, and social support. the main cause of non-adherence in this study was ‘simply forget’. conclusion: adherence to haart was found to be high and not associated with self-efficacy, depression level and social support in some central regions in indonesia. (med j indones 2011; 20:50-5)