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Research Highlights
HSR&D Investigator Presents at International AIDS Conference
July 22, 2004
Thomas Giordano, MD, an investigator with HSR&D's Houston Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies, gave a presentation on measuring adherence to antiretroviral therapy at the XV International AIDS Conference held in Bangkok, Thailand on July 11-16, 2004. More than 10,000 abstracts were submitted for this year's conference, making his acceptance an outstanding achievement. Dr. Giordano's study evaluated a simple adherence tool based on a visual analogue scale (VAS), comparing it to a tool based on 3-day recall (3DR) and one using unannounced pill counts (UPC). Investigators analyzed data from a prospective observational study of marginally housed, indigent HIV-infected persons in San Francisco (83% male, 58% non-white, and 64% with history of injection drug use). Study subjects had three adherence assessments over no more than a 4-month period using all 3 methods of assessment. Results of this study show that the simple VAS tool performed as well as the more complicated 3DR tool and better than the UPC among this diverse population. Investigators believe that adopting the VAS instrument may save time and will simplify data analysis. It is also brief enough to be self-administered and to become an integral part of routine clinical practice, even among resource-poor settings.
Giordano TP, Guzman D, Clark R, Charlebois E, and Bangsberg DR. "Measuring Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy in a Diverse Population Using a Visual Analogue Scale." Poster presentation - XV International AIDS Conference, July 11-16, Bangkok, Thailand.
*This study did not use VA data. For more information, contact Dr. Giordano at tpg@bc.tmc.edu.
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