Analysis of the needs of specialists for assistance in forming follow-up care and treatment adherence in HIV-infected patients

Objective. To investigate the actual needs of specialists for assistance in the formation of adherence to follow-up care and treatment for HIV infection. Subjects and methods. The paper presents the results of surveying 63 specialists who have experience in rendering care to HIV-infected patients. Group 1 consisted of 26 specialists from the Russian Federation; Group 2 included 37 specialists from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) countries, such as the Republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Belarus, and the Kyrgyz Republic. The respondents were asked to answer the indicator question about their needs for forming patient adherence and to rate their abilities in this context. The results were assessed using the content analysis and the descriptive statistics. Results. The respondents’ most urgent needs that were common to both groups were related to organizational issues (39.3 and 58.2%, respectively), as well as to knowledge acquisition (28.6 and 25.4%). Group 1 respondents also stated that they needed to have support (17.8%) and to use effective drugs to treat HIV infection (14.3%). At the same time, half (50%) of the respondents rated their ability to form and maintain their adherence at 5 or less out of 10 scores. Group 2 respondents showed the expectations of patients to be ready for treatment (14.5%) and stated the need for material assistance (1.8%). 41.17% of the survey participants rated their ability to form and maintain adherence at 5 or less scores. Conclusion. The share of the content indicating the need to increase psychological competencies was 71.42% in Group 1 and 76.92% in Group 2. The findings should be taken into account when developing effective strategies to form adherence in HIV infection.

HIV infection, treatment adherence, specialists’ needs and abilities