Soon after the advent of HIV medications, it became obvious that taking your medicines exactly as prescribed was essential for an effective drug regimen. It also became apparent that factors affecting medication adherence are plentiful. If a person is to adhere to their medication, the medical provider must first identify factors that affect medication adherence, or the likelihood that that patient will take his medication as prescribed. Assessing adherence before prescribing a regimen will help ensure a patient stays on an effective treatment plan. To better understand what's needed for an effective HIV medication regimen, let's take a look at those factors affecting medication adherence.
Health Status
It seems a bit ironic but your health and wellness has a big impact on your ability to adhere to the very HIV regimen that will keep you healthy. If you are feeling well, energetic, and have few current medical issues, it's going to be easier to take your medicines each day. However, given the nature of HIV that is typically not the case. Because HIV impacts your health in so many ways it's easy to see why adherence is such a challenge. So one key to improved adherence is to make sure you are as healthy as you can be prior to starting your drug regimen. Make certain you eat a healthy diet; get plenty of rest; treat any underlying infections; and make certain you are emotionally healthy.Current and Past Medications
The medicines you are currently taking, both prescription and over the counter, can affect your adherence to your HIV medication regimen. For instance, anti-inflammatory drugs such as Motrin, ibuprofen, or naprosyn can cause significant stomach upset. If you have taken a dose of such a medication and have stomach upset or nausea, you may not feel like taking your dose of HIV medication. You skip the dose because of the nausea and before you know it adherence has been affected.When we speak of nausea as we did with our previous example we speak of medication side effects. Since the advent of HIV medications, the side effects they cause have been a huge reason adherence is so hard to achieve. Whether it's the side effects you are having or the fear of side effects that may occur, unexpected symptoms that result from medicines you take will affect your medication adherence. Talk to your provider to discuss any side effects to determine whether there could be a solution to the side effects.
Finally, any issues you may have had with past HIV regimens; whether it was bad side effects or poor adherence, those issues will affect your ability to adhere to your current regimen. For instance, if you had problems with adherence in the past, it's easy to fall into the same bad habits that caused your poor adherence with your new regimen. Unless you change your approach to your new medication regimen the result will most likely be the same.
Are You Ready for Meds?
For optimal medication adherence to be possible, there must be a commitment from the person about to start an HIV regimen. Adherence requires readiness on the part of the person for whom the regimen was designed. When we talk about commitment we talk about many things.- Will you continue your HIV meds in the face of unpleasant side effects such as nausea or vomiting?
- Will you be willing to get medication refills in a timely manner each month so there is no gap in medication?
- Will you attend regular follow-up appointments with your HIV specialist?
- Finally, will you be available for regular lab work to be drawn in order to monitor the health of your immune system and the status of your HIV activity?
Social Stability
Your ability to take your medicines as prescribed is also affected by your social and economic status. Do you live in a house or are you homeless? Do you know how to read the instructions that come with your meds? Do you have the means to get your prescriptions each month; either by insurance, government assistance, or purchasing them with your own money? Another consideration is transportation; do you have dependable transportation to the pharmacy to pick up your meds? Finally, do you have financial resources that allows you to eat healthy and on a regular basis? Keep in mind that not taking your meds, though, may further complicate financial circumstances.As you can see the social issues mentioned here can negatively impact your adherence. For instance many of your medications need to be taken with food to work well. not to mention that without a proper diet, your health will suffer and ultimately so will your adherence.
