{"id":20612,"date":"2012-12-01T09:55:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T09:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/?p=20612"},"modified":"2012-12-07T07:57:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-07T07:57:36","slug":"the-challenge-of-adherence-during-pregnancy-and-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/20612","title":{"rendered":"The challenge of adherence during pregnancy and after"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polly Clayden, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n

Data on adherence rates during and after pregnancy are limited. These data are important particularly as international guidance moves towards universal ART in pregnancy and during breastfeeding.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the 23 October 2012 edition of AIDS was conducted to estimate adherence rates in pregnancy and postpartum and found that achieving adequate adherence during this period was a challenge particularly after delivery. [1]<\/p>\n

Jean Nachega and an international group of researchers performed a literature search, which included all studies from low-, middle-, and high-income countries reporting adherence rates in HIV positive women as a primary or secondary outcome. From the review, 72 articles were selected of which 51 met the inclusion criteria for the analysis.<\/p>\n

The majority (74%) of the studies were observational and the remaining ones were RCTs evaluating PMTCT programmes. Most were conducted in the United States (27%), followed by Kenya (12%), South Africa (10%) and Zambia (10%). Almost half (45%) the studies reported adherence rates in women receiving ART, and 29% and 24% in women receiving AZT and single dose nevirapine (NVP) respectively. One study compared adherence rates between women receiving ART and those AZT. Adherence thresholds differed across studies from >80% to 100% and most used self reported questionnaires followed by pill count and pharmacy refills. Most studies (76%) reported adherence during the antepartum period, 8% post partum, and 16% reported rates during both periods.<\/p>\n

A pooled analysis of all studies found an estimate of 73.5% (95% CI 69.3 – 77.5%) of women with adequate ART adherence (>80%). The pooled proportion of women who achieved adequate adherence was significantly higher during the antepartum (75.7%, 95% CI 71.5 – 79.7%) than the postpartum period (53%, 95% CI 32.8 – 72.7%, p=0.005).<\/p>\n

The pooled adherence of women with good adherence rates was significantly higher in low- and middle-income countries (76.1%, 95% CI 72.2 – 79.7%) than in high-income countries (62%, 95% CI 50.1 – 73.3%, p=0.021). When the investigators excluded single dose NVP studies from the analysis, this difference became non-significant (74.3 vs 62%, p=0.062). When the analyses were limited to adherence thresholds of >90% (74.8 vs 69.7%, p=0.071) and 100% (78.3 vs 74%, p=0.103) the differences between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries were also non-significant.<\/p>\n

The investigators noted that this meta-analysis showed that adherence during pregnancy is significantly below that recommended for virologic suppression. They wrote: “It is crucial to monitor ART adherence, investigate specific barriers for nonadherence, and develop interventions to assist antepartum and postpartum women in adhering to ART and ensure the long-term efficacy of such an approach for both maternal health and PMTCT.”<\/p>\n

comment<\/h2>\n

The importance of adherence in pregnancy and post partum is a big consideration in discussions about WHO Option B+, ie all women starting lifelong treatment in pregnancy regardless of CD4.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are many brilliant community models to support adherence. MSF recently launched a toolkit describing their very successful Adherence Clubs in the Western Cape.<\/strong> [2]<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Nachega J et al. Adherence to antiretroviral therapy during and after pregnancy in low-income, middle-income and high-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. AIDS. Vol 26 No 16. 2012.<\/li>\n
  2. MSF. ART Report and Toolkit.
    \nhttp:\/\/www.msf.org.za\/sites\/default\/files\/publication\/documents\/ART_Adherence_Club_report_toolkit.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Polly Clayden, HIV i-Base Data on adherence rates during and after pregnancy are limited. These data are important particularly as international guidance moves towards universal ART in pregnancy and during breastfeeding. A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the 23 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pmtct-and-maternal-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}