HIV PATIENTS PERCEPTION OF PHARMACISTS CARING ATTITUDE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ADHERENCE

HIV PATIENTS PERCEPTION OF PHARMACISTS CARING ATTITUDE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ADHERENCE

Usifoh SF*, Idiake J, Aika IN, Soni JS, Egede DO

 Department of Clinical and Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria

Afr. J Pharm Res Dev; Volume 10(2): 079-084  ;  2018
ABSTRACT
HIV/AIDS is an infectious disease which is highly burdensome and requires a collaborative effort by all health care professionals at all levels to manage and prevent its spread. High level of adherence (at least 95%) to antiretroviral therapy is required to obtain an optimum therapeutic result. Pharmacists as an integral part of the healthcare team have a huge role to play to achieve adequate adherence. The study objectives were to investigate HIV patients’ perception of pharmacists’ caring attitude and how it affects their adherence and attitude towards illness. This study is a cross-sectional study which was carried out in Central Hospital, Benin City. A 3 section questionnaire was developed and administered to participants. First section collected demographic data, second section assess awareness and adherence while the third section assess caring attitude of pharmacists. Data was entered into Microsoft excel and analyzed by SPSS and Graphpad Instat®. Results revealed that 187 (93.5%) and 156 (78%) respondents have a good awareness of HIV/AIDS and ARV respectively. While 129 (64.5%) respondents agreed that pharmacists inquire about their daily life 59 (29.5%) disagreed. Also 188 (94%) agreed that pharmacists have a positive impact on their attitude towards healthcare while an insignificant few 10 (5%) disagreed.

Email of correspondence: sfusifoh@uniben.edu

KEYWORDS: HIV/AIDS, Pharmacists, Adherence, Perception, Caring attitude