Effect of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy on Adherence to Antiretroviral Drugs among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Lagos State, Nigeria (Published)
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3 aims to end AIDS by 2030. This brief provides an update on the progress in relation to HIV prevention, testing and t: reatment. This study, therefore investigated the effect of cognitive behavioural therapy on adherence to anti-retroviral drugs among people living with HIV/AIDS in Lagos State. The population for the study was people living with HIV/AIDS in selected local government areas in Lagos State where two hundred participants participated in this study. The study utilizes two group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design. After administering a pre-test, the participants were taken through series of nurse-led psycho-educational programme of CBT on adherence to anti-retroviral drug among people living with HIV/AIDS, after which a post test was administered. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. T-test and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed a significant difference in the mean level of adherence to antiretroviral drugs (mean difference = 10.77, t(193) = 9.437, p = .000<.05) among people living with HIV/AIDS in the experimental and control groups. A significant difference was found in the effect of cognitive behavioural therapy and control on people living with HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drug adherence (F(1,144) = 7.666; p = .000<0.05). The study concluded that CBT is useful for a clinical diagnosis and clinical outcomes. It is therefore recommended among others that healthcare facilities and policymakers should incorporate CBT as a standard component of HIV/AIDS management to enhance adherence to antiretroviral therapy.
Keywords: Adherence, Anti-retroviral drug, Cognitive behaviour therapy, HIV/AIDS