ART Adherence and Virological Failure
viremia, virological failure
VIREMIA
Self-reported adherence difficulty was measured at 3-monthly intervals between week 12 and 96 of follow-up using three items from the ACTG questionnaire [Suboptimal adherence as measured using pill count was measured at 3-monthly intervals between week 12 and 96 of follow-up. Patients were instructed to return with leftover ART tablets. Tablets were counted and the number of doses taken during the last month was calculated as a percentage of the number of doses prescribed by a lay adherence, with 100% indicating complete adherence. Non-adherence was defined as a pill count < 95% in accordance with the threshold used by the WHO [The HIV-RNA load was measured at 6 months (24 weeks), 1 year, and 2 years after initiation of ART in newly initiated participants, and annually in participants already on ART. Virological failure was defined as viremia ≥ 1000 copies/ml, as defined by the WHO [For each outcome, if the outcome definition occurred on at least one timepoint, the patient was marked as having met the outcome definition. Treatment arm allocation in the parent trial was not included as a covariate in the current analysis, as this variable was shown not to be significantly associated with virological failure, self-reported adherence difficulties or suboptimal adherence as measured using pill count [