Predictors of Missed Appointments Among HIV-Infected Adults on Antiretroviral Therapy Attending Nyamirama Health Center HIV Clinic in Rural Rwanda
Abstract
Background: Appropriate management of diseases especially chronic diseases requires that patients keep their scheduled clinic appointments for medical follow up. Consistency in attending these scheduled clinic appointments is vital for the patients. Attendance to clinic appointments for HIV-infected patients is major determinant in prolonging and improving the quality of their life. Failure to comply with scheduled clinic appointments is reported to prevent HIV infected patients to receive advanced care and may jeopardize the effectiveness and efficiency of care. This study aimed to identify factors associated with missed clinic scheduled appointments among adult HIV-infected patients on HAART attending Nyamirama Health Centre HIV clinic in rural Rwanda.
Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of 417 HIV-infected adult patients over 15 years of age on antiretroviral therapy. Routinely collected clinic data on patients ’demographic, socioeconomic, clinical characteristics and health facility characteristics were used for this study. Furthermore, the data on attendance of scheduled clinic appointments was collected to assess the level of missed scheduled clinic appointments among the study participants. Binary logistic regression using backward stepwise regression was used to assess the demographic, socioeconomic, health facility characteristics and clinical characteristics that may be associated with the non-adherence to scheduled clinic appointments. The level of significance was set at <0.05.
Results: The prevalence of missed scheduled clinic appointments in this study was 9.5%. No demographic, socioeconomic, treatment and clinical characteristics of the patients were found to be associated with missing scheduled clinics appointments in HIV care.
Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that the rate of missed scheduled clinic appointments was low compared to other previous studies done in other settings. No demographic, socioeconomic, health facility and clinical factors have been found in this study to be associated with missed scheduled clinic appointments. HIV-infected people on antiretroviral therapy in rural areas of Rwanda may achieve a satisfying level of keeping scheduled clinic appointments.