Relationships of Health Literacy and Knowledge about Antiretroviral Therapy to Medication Adherence among People Living with HIV

Abstract

A descriptive correlational study was conducted to determine relationships between age, income, education and health literacy, as well as knowledge about antiretroviral therapy (ART) and medication adherence. A sample of 110 people living with HIV was purposively recruited at a NAPHA (National Access to Antiretroviral Therapy for People living with HIV/AIDS) Clinic in a selected tertiary care hospital in Thailand. Self-report questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation.

It was revealed that 28.2 % had very good overall health literacy. For each sub-component of health literacy, 54.5, 38.2, and 33.6 % of the subjects had very good scores on functional, communicative, and critical health literacy, respectively. While 90.1 % had very good knowledge about ART, only 42.9 % reported good medication adherence. It was found that age, income, education, health literacy, and knowledge about ART did not have significant relationship with medication adherence. Although only 28.2 % had very good overall health literacy, 90.1 % had very good knowledge about ART. This may be because the subjects received knowledge about ART directly from health care providers more than reading materials on their own. The results regarding health literacy are useful for health care providers in guiding the development of health teaching methods to enhance medication adherence in accordance with level of health literacy of each individual.