Metrics details. Long-term engagement in HIV care is essential to achieving and maintaining viral suppression. Higher attrition among adolescents compared to adults remains a huge concern due to unique psychosocial and health systems challenges adolescents face, and recently the COVID pandemic effects. We report on determinants and rates of retention in care in adolescents aged 10โ19 years enrolled on antiretroviral therapy ART in Windhoek, Namibia.
A retrospective cohort analysis of routine clinical data of adolescents aged 10โ19 years enrolled for ART at 13 Windhoek district public healthcare facilities, between January and December was conducted. Anonymized patient data were extracted from an electronic database and registers.
Bivariate and Cox proportional hazards analysis were performed to determine factors associated with retention in care among ALHIV at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months. Retention in care trends were also described using the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The retention in care rates at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months were Our study population had predominantly treatment-experienced adolescents, who initiated ART between birth and 9 years Gender-specific interventions are needed to keep male and older adolescents motivated and engaged in long-term care, and to promote adherence amongst those adolescents who were initiated on ART in late adolescence 15โ19 years.
Peer Review reports. In , about 1. Adolescence is described by the World Health Organization WHO as the life phase after childhood and before reaching adulthood, specifically between the ages of 10 and 19 years old [ 2 ]. Estimates for alone indicate that about , adolescents 10โ19 years were newly infected with HIV worldwide [ 1 ].
The newly infected adolescents add to the already growing sub-population of ALHIV considering the number of vertically infected children surviving into adolescence [ 3 ]. While children continue to be underserved by most health systems in terms of access to appropriate HIV services, the COVID pandemic exacerbated the lack of access, with several restrictive measures being implemented to mitigate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus [ 4 ].
