Effectiveness of HIV Intervention Package (HIP) on HIV Infected Adolescents: Pilot Study Report

Abstract

Background: Adolescents are the fulcrum of the population. HIV affects this precious population, which faces many barriers in achieving optimal adherence to Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) as compared to the children and adults living with HIV. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of HIV Intervention Package (HIP) on HIV infected adolescents.Methods: Randomised controlled trial was conducted in the ART Centre, Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Egmore. By simple random technique, 40 (10% from total sample size) samples were selected and divided equally into experimental and control groups. Relevant structured questionnaires were used to collect the data through face-to-face interview methods. The experimental group received HIP including asana demonstration along with routine care and the control group received only the routine care as conventional management. Results: At the end of the 6thmonth after the intervention, data were interpreted in the improvement of HIP components in the experimental and control groups and the results were recorded as follows: adherence rate: 6.4% in the experimental group and 2.2% in the control group, and Quality of life (QOL) 7.2% in the experimental group and 0.4% in the control group; it was significant at 95% Confidence Interval (CI). The other component of nutritional gain score increased by 4.5% in the experimental group and by 0.8% in the control group.Conclusion: Our study report revealed that HIP is more effective in achieving the targets of optimal adherence, increasing nutritional status, and enhancing QOL among HIV infected adolescents.