Effectiveness of community client-led art delivery on people living with HIV at Buwambo Health Centre IV Wakiso District.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: There is a 21% and 26-30% Loss to follow up cases in the first 6 months and first two years of treatment respectively in Uganda, ultimately leading to low retention levels of HIV patients on treatment. The Uganda Ministry of Health started a program in 2016 called Community Client- led ART delivery model (CCLAD) as a model of drug delivery among People Living with IIIV and consists of stable art clients in the same community/locality where members take turn to pick ARVs and distribute them among other group members. AIM: This study was aimed at assessing the effectiveness of community client led ART delivery model on people living with HIV in Buwambo Health Centre IV Wakiso District. Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional survey conducted iii Buwambo health center IV among CCLAD leaders. Semi-Structured questionnaires were administered to 18 CCLAD Leaders. The collected data was entered into Microsoft excel and descriptive analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Results: The study showed that 16.7% of the CCLAD leaders had very bad adherence, 27.8% bad adherence, 33.3% fair adherence and 22.2% good adherence before joining CCLAD, as compared to adherence after joining CCLAD where 5.6% had good adherence. 67% very good adherence and 27.8% had excellent adherence. This gave an average adherence score of 2.61 (SD=1.03) before CCLAD indicative of poor adherence and 5.22 (SD=2.61) after CCLAD indicative of very good adherence to ART drugs. The study also showed an increase in viral load suppression from 83.3% to 94.4% before and after joining CCLAD respectively. There was also a reduction in occurrence of opportunistic infection among CCLAD leaders from 27.8% to 5.6% before and after joining CCLAD 1 respectively. Conclusion: The study has confirmed a significant relationship between joining CCLAD and improvement of drug accessibility, adherence and treatment outcomes.