Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar;22(3):691-700.
doi: 10.1007/s10461-017-1834-2.

Readiness for Antiretroviral Therapy: Implications for Linking HIV-Infected Individuals to Care and Treatment

Brendan Maughan-Brown  1 , Philip Smith  2 , Caroline Kuo  3   4 , Abigail Harrison  3 , Mark N Lurie  5 , Linda-Gail Bekker  2 , Omar Galárraga  6
Affiliations

Readiness for Antiretroviral Therapy: Implications for Linking HIV-Infected Individuals to Care and Treatment

Brendan Maughan-Brown et al. AIDS Behav. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Using survey data collected immediately after referral for ART (N = 87), this study examined ART-readiness among individuals (18 years and older) attending a mobile health clinic in South Africa. Most participants reported being very ready (84%) and motivated (85%) to start ART, but only 72% were assessed as ready for ART on all measures. Treatment readiness was lower among individuals who did not think they would test HIV-positive (aOR 0.26, p < 0.05) and among individuals who reported being in good health (aOR 0.44, p < 0.1). In contrast, higher readiness was associated with better ART knowledge (aOR 4.31, p < 0.05) and knowing someone who had experienced positive health effects from ART (aOR 2.65, p < 0.05). Results indicate that post-test counselling will need to be designed to deal with surprise at HIV diagnosis, and that health messaging needs to be carefully crafted to support uptake of ART among HIV-positive but healthy individuals. Further research is needed on effective post-test counselling approaches and effective framing of health messaging to increase awareness of the multiple positive benefits of early ART initiation and corresponding readiness to engage in treatment.

Keywords: Barriers to ART initiation; HIV/AIDS; Linkage to care; Treatment readiness.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Bor J, Herbst AJ, Newell M-L, Bärnighausen T. Increases in adult life expectancy in rural South Africa: valuing the scale-up of HIV treatment. Science. 2013;339:961–5. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Johnson LF, Mossong J, Dorrington RE, et al. Life expectancies of South African adults starting antiretroviral treatment: collaborative analysis of cohort studies. PLOS Med. 2013;10:e1001418. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cohen MS, Chen YQ, McCauley M, et al. Prevention of HIV-1 infection with early antiretroviral therapy. N Engl J Med. 2011;365:493–505. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Montaner JSG, Lima VD, Barrios R, et al. Association of highly active antiretroviral therapy coverage, population viral load, and yearly new HIV diagnoses in British Columbia, Canada: a population-based study. Lancet. 2010;376:532–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tanser F, Bärnighausen T, Grapsa E, Zaidi J, Newell ML. High coverage of ART associated with decline in risk of HIV acquisition in rural KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa. Sci. 2013;339:966–71. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources