Effects of a Phone Call Intervention to Promote Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy and Quality of Life of HIVAIDS Patients in Baoshan, China : A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract EN

Background.

Suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is still pervasive.

The effect of using a mobile phone call intervention to improve patient adherence is currently not known.

Objective.

This study aims to investigate the effects of a phone call intervention on adherence to ART and quality of life (QOL) of treatment-naive and treatment-experienced patients.

Methods.

A randomized controlled trial was conducted in the three largest public hospitals.

Adherence was measured by self-completed questionnaires.

QOL was assessed by the WHOQOL-HIV BREF.

Outcomes were assessed at day 15, at 1, 2, and 3 months after start of treatment for treatment-naive patients and at 3 months after study enrollment for treatment-experienced patients.

Results.

A total of 103 treatment-naive and 93 treatment-experienced HIV/AIDS patients were consecutively recruited.

Results show that a phone call intervention could maintain high self-reported adherence among both treatment-naive and treatment-experienced patients.

After three months, significant QOL improvements were observed in domains of physical health (P=0.003), level of independence (P=0.018), environment (P=0.002), and spirituality/religion/personal beliefs (P=0.021) among treatment-naive patients.

Conclusion.

A mobile phone call intervention to patients could maintain high adherence rates although no statistically significant differences were found.

A phone call could improve some domains of QOL among treatment-naive patients.