Trial Information

A Pilot Study of Adherence to Oral Medication and Health Beliefs of Adolescents With HIV and Their Mothers

The proposed study has two specific aims 1) to gather data about treatment adherence levels
among adolescents (11-21 years) with HIV and 2) to obtain information about the adolescents
and mothers' health beliefs and examine their relationship to the adolescents' adherence
levels. This pilot study is designed to gather preliminary data about the feasibility of
using several new measures with this population. To achieve these aims, a convenience
sample of approximately 45 adolescents with HIV will be recruited. The adolescents and
their mothers will complete a brief questionnaire about their health beliefs. A 24-hour
recall interview format will be used to assess the adolescents' treatment adherence to
prescribed oral medication. The adolescent will complete recall interviews on three random
days over a two week period. Data analysis will be primarily descriptive, but will be used
to generate more specific hypotheses for future research studies. The long-term goal of
this research is to better identify adolescents with HIV at risk for non-adherence and
design empirically derived interventions to improve their adherence levels. The health
beliefs measure may also be useful in identifying irrational beliefs about the illness or
treatment that can then be targeted for cognitive restructing in psychological
interventions.