Compliance/adherence and care management in HIV disease

With the changing perspectives of the HIV epidemic and the introduction of protease inhibitors to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, the issue of compliance has gained considerable interest among health care providers. The idea that clients with HIV disease should succumb to a patriarchal system of medical care has been challenged by AIDS activists since the beginning of the epidemic. The concept that there is only one explanation for "noncompliance" is outdated. The reasons for noncompliance are multifaceted in nature and include psychosocial factors, complex medication and treatment regimens, ethnocultural concerns, and in many instances substance use. Therefore, the notion that there is one intervention to resolve noncompliance is at best archaic. Interventions to enhance compliance include supervised therapy, improving the nurse-client relationship, and patient education, all of which should be combined with ethnocultural interventions. Plans to enhance compliance must incorporate person-specific variables and should be tailored to individualized needs.