Abstract

Globally, there were an estimated 33 million people living with HIV by the end of 2007, and
more than 25 million people since 1981 have died from AIDS. In 2007 there were 2.7 million
new infections and 2 million HIV-related deaths. All these facts are attributed to the
compromise of adherence to ART. Currently, there are an estimated 940,000 people (adults
and children) living with HIV in Uganda but the adherence levels are hence posing a great
challenge in the fight against the scourge. To assess factors influencing adherence to ART
among HIV/AIDS clients at Kampala International University Teaching Hospital, a descriptive
cross-sectional study design quantitative in nature was used to recruit 52 respondents for
the study out of whom 52 questionnaires thus giving a response rate of 100%. 75% of the
respondents strongly agreed that level of income may influence adherence to ART, 57% of
the respondents agreed that drug hypersensitivity and side effects affect adherence to ART
and 63.5% of the respondents agreed that clinic characteristics can impact adherence. The
researcher concluded that client-related factors influencing adherence to ART include the
client’s age, level of education, level of income, social support, co-morbidities, and patient’s
belief about the effectiveness of ART. Therapy-related factors affecting adherence to ART
include; polypharmacy, hypersensitivity, pill burden, and regimen complexity. Health
system-related factors affecting adherence to ART include; clinic characteristics, selfmedication,
lengthy wait before the next clinic visit, and the patient-provider relationship.