THE NIGERIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
ISSN: 0331-4111 e-ISSN: 2736-075X
Volume 21, No. 1, June 2023
Pages 1-12
DOI: 10.36108/NJSA/3202.12.0110
Adherence to HIV Treatment among Children and Adolescents in Selected Nigerian States: Gaps and Lessons
1Ezebunwa E. Nwokocha, 2 Godpower Omoregie, 2 Aisha Dadi, 1Lilian I. Nwokocha, 2 Omokhudu Idogho and 2Jennifer Anyanti
1University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
2Society for Family Health, Abuja, Nigeria
Abstract
By the tenderness of their ages, the responsibility for adhering to HIV-treatment among children and adolescents falls squarely on the shoulders of parents and/or caregivers. Some of the young people that largely follow treatment regimen do so by persuasion and not the strength of their conviction about the essence of the therapy. This study was an appraisal of HIV-treatment adherence among children and adolescents in Anambra, Oyo, Rivers and Taraba states. Data were collected through in-depth and key informant interviews involving critical stakeholders. Findings show that poverty is a major factor in lack of adherence including in the inability to pick up drug due to cost of transportation to facilities; some who experienced viral suppression assumed they had become non-reactive and stopped taking drugs only to relapse; attitude of patients that sometimes suggests that skipping of drugs may not be harmful; lack of food and refusal of patients to take their drugs; adherence fatigue and getting to facilities from distant places including rural areas requiring payment for transportation in the context of poverty; forgetfulness and non-use of alarm clocks for reminders, stigma that prompts some to leave facilities on sighting a familiar person among others. There is need for more vigorous sensitization of communities and caregiver on the essence of strict adherence to treatment as the surest way of attaining viral suppression among young people living with HIV/AIDS.
Keywords: Role of caregivers, adherence fatigue, HIV sensitization, viral suppression