Antiretroviral therapy (ART) suppresses viral reproduction and stop progression of the disease process. Antiretroviral drug adverse reactions negatively influence antiretroviral treatment outcome. Incidence, type and time antiretroviral drug adverse reactions occur is not well documented. The purpose of this study was to investigate time to major antiretroviral drugs adverse reactions and its predictors among patients receiving ART in Hosanna, Ethiopia.
Patients initiated on ART between September 2008 and August 2010 (n = 144) were assessed in a retrospective cohort analysis in Hosanna Hospital in Ethiopia. We used Schoenfeld formula for survival analysis to estimate sample size. We used Kaplan–Meier curve and log-rank test to assess survival time. We used Person-days' time scale to measure time to major antiretroviral drugs adverse reaction. We used Cox regression model to identify predictors of major antiretroviral drugs adverse reactions. We set 95% confidence interval (CI) of hazard ratio (HR) with the corresponding P-value < 0.05 to declare statistical significance. EpI-Data version 3.1 and STATA 10.0 statistical programs used for data processing. We used Mendeley desktop to organize references.
144 participants were followed-up for 1147 Person-days and the incidence rate of major antiretroviral drugs adverse reaction was 48.8 per 1000 person-days. The median time for major adverse drug reactions ± standard deviation (SD) was 15.0 ± 3.7 (CI 7.6, 22.3) days after initiating treatment. The time to major antiretroviral drugs adverse reaction was significantly different for stage of the AIDS disease when patients start ART (Log-rank X2: 9.2; P = 0.02).
High incidence of major antiretroviral drug adverse reactions noted and most of them seen within in 15 days of starting treatment.