Knowledge, Attitude and the Use of Patient Package Inserts: Perspectives on Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy

Introduction: Patient package insert is an innovative tool capable of providing additional medication information in written form; it has the potential to promote adherence to antiretroviral medicines.

Objectives: This study assessed the knowledge of respondents on antiretroviral medicines. It determined the proportion of clients who read the Patient Package Inserts (PPIs) for antiretroviral medicines. The study assessed the impact of using the Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) on adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

Methods: A cross-sectional design involving simple random sampling was employed. The study recruited 404 participants from the HIV/AIDS centres of Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BHUTH) and Plateau State Specialist Hospital (PSSH), Jos, Nigeria. Pre-tested structured questionnaires were administered to participants. Data was analysed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0 and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results were presented in descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: The study revealed that 36.1% of the respondents read the patient package inserts. Reading the package inserts was statistically associated with educational status (p=0.000), marital status (p=0.022), occupation (p=0.000), gender (p=0.000) and religion (p=0.000). Adherence in the last one week significantly correlated with age (p=0.048) and marital status (p=0.002). One-third of the respondents had good perception about patient information leaflets. Using the leaflets had no statistically significant implication on adherence to antiretroviral medicines.

Conclusion: The study found poor usability of the patient package inserts among HIV/AIDS clients; although, the adherence level among the clients was quite high.