Psychosocial variables associated with adherence to highly active antiretroviral therapy: a systematic review

Adherence levels of patients undergoing High Active Antiretroviral Treatment have a direct impact not only on the patient’s clinical evolution, but also on the course of disease on a community level. Multiple causal factors that determine adherent conducts include a large array of biological, psychological, social and economic aspects. Objectives: to carry out a full systematic review of evaluation studies on HAART therapy adherence and to identify the psychosocial factors associated to adherence failure to this therapy. Data Sources: Documents from six different electronic databases were consulted, in Spanish, Portuguese and English, dating from 1996 to 2009. Study selectionand data extraction: Studies presenting only qualitative data were excluded, presenting only systematic revision or including child population. Results on demographic data, design type,adherence evaluation methods, intervening factors and attained adherence levels were extracted and summarized. Data synthesis: twenty five articles, that included a total of14.089 cases, were considered...