Background: Strict adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is key to sustained HIV suppression, reduced risk of drug resistance, improved overall health, quality of life, and survival, as well as decreased risk of HIV transmission. Non-adherence to ART can lead to poor clinical, immunological, and virology outcomes. At an individual level, the outcome of non-adherence includes incomplete viral suppression, continued destruction of the immune system, decrease of CD4+ cell count, progression of disease, emergence of resistant viral strains, limited future therapeutic option, and higher costs for individual treatment. These outcomes all translate to higher ART program cost Objective: The purpose of study was to determine the factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral therapy among HIV positive patients attending ART clinic at Bugono health center IV Methods: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive in nature, employing quantitative method of data collection was used to assess factors affecting ART adherence among 283 HIV positive patients at Bugono health center IV using simple random sampling, data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: From the data analyzed, the level of adherence was low at 62.9Marital status (ᵡ2=13.538, P-value of 0.004), level of education (ᵡ2=86.162, P-value of 0<.001), occupation (ᵡ2=12.909, P-value of 0.005), residence (ᵡ2=10.686, P-value of 0.001), financial status (ᵡ2=8.462, P-value of 0.004), distance to health facility (ᵡ2=5.685, P-value of 0.017), availability of drug at the health Centre (ᵡ2=5.946, P-value of 0<.001), availability of health workers (ᵡ2=28.062, P-value of 0<.001), attitude of health workers (ᵡ2=36.525, P-value of 0<.001), waiting time (ᵡ2=40.219, P-value of 0<.001), frequency of hospital visits (ᵡ2=22.342, P-value of 0.00), counselling services (ᵡ2=40.792, P-value of 0<.001), Frequency of refill (ᵡ2=7.949, P-value of 0.005), effect of side effect (ᵡ2=32.329, P-value of 0<.001), accessibility of ART (ᵡ2=6.826, P-value of 0.009) and number of pills (ᵡ2=13.783, P-value of 0<.001) were with significantly associated with adherence to ART in the study Conclusions and Recommendations: In conclusion, this study revealed that the level of adherence was low. Therefore the study recommends that health care providers should regularly counsel and educate patients before initiation and during the course of antiretroviral therapy and Health care providers should enhance their interpersonal interaction with their patients to appropriately deliver messages about the HIV disease and HIV medications, to build a trusting relationship and encourage patients to ask questions about their treatment and discuss challenges of taking ARV medications.

show more