Doctors (IDI), nurses (IDI) and counsellors (FG) working within the ART programme; Caregivers (FG) of children ≤5 years attending a peri-urban clinic; Traditional healers (FG) consulting to people with HIV.
During each ART visit caregivers were asked to report missed ART doses within the last 3 days prior to the visit according to the format below: Is your child on long-term treatment (like ARV, CPT, IPT, TB tx)? Y/N, if yes, specify ____________________ How many doses did he/she miss yesterday?
Semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus groups (FGs) were conducted with purposively sampled individuals: Doctors (IDI), nurses (IDI) and counsellors (FG) working within the ART programme; Caregivers (FG) of children ≤5 years attending a peri-urban clinic; Traditional healers (FG) consulting to people with HIV.
Once on ART, each caregiver's report of their children's ART intake was recorded for at least 6 months.
Before starting ART, the caregiver and the child (if the diagnosis was disclosed) attend a one-hour mandatory education session.
The following broad descriptive categories were used to organise the data: profile of patients on ART; description of caregivers; scope/level of activity of HBC before and after ART; status and relationships of caregivers with clients and public health sector; and impact of HBC on the health and lives of people living with HIV.
As an increasing number of people living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya have access to ART, the primary caregivers of poor resource settings, often children, face the challenge of meeting the requirements of rigid ART adherence schedules and frequent relapses.
The study participants were 210 children on ART and their caregivers attending pediatric ART clinic of Tikur Anbessa Hospital (TAH), Addis Ababa University.
However, in resource-poor contexts, where paediatric HIV burden is high there has been limited progress in developing or adapting tools to support adherence for HIV-infected children on ART and their caregivers.
Prior to ART initiation the caregiver received an information leaflet.
