Adherence to tuberculosis preventive therapy in people living with hiv/aids.

Introduction: Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of morbidity worldwide. About 23% of the worlds' population has been estimated to have latent TB infection (LTBI). Treatment for LTBI with Isoniazid is an important strategy if TB is to be eradicated by 2050.Methods: Afacility based cross-sectional study conducted in ve urban health clinics in Lusaka between January and April, 2020. HIV positive adults on Isoniazid systematically selected and interviewed using structured questionnaires. Data entered in excel and imported into STATA version 14 for analysis. Descriptive statistics and Logistic regression analysis utilised.Results:A total of 320 respondents were included in the study. The seven day selfreported adherence rate was 81·1%. The most frequent reasons for ever missing a pill were that the patient forgot to take their medication (9·69%, N=31), were away from home and forgot to carry the drugs (9·69%, N=31) or ran out of medication (7·19%, N=23).Those that took isoniazid for 2 to 4 months were less likely to be non-adherent compared to those who had taken it for less than 2 months (aOR:0·31, CI:0·12, 0·74, p=0·011). Patients who experienced side effects such as vomiting and peripheral neuropathy were more likely to be non-adherent compared to those who did not have side effects (aOR:11·40, CI:1·95, 66·7, p=0·01) and (aOR:3·73, CI:1·14, 12·17, p=0·03) respectively. Having an excellent social support reduced the odds of being non-adherent compared to those who had very poor social support (aOR: 0·11, CI: 0·02, 0·72, p=0·02). Interpretation:Self-reported adherence to INH was high. Factors associated with poor adherence included shorter duration on INH and side effects. An excellent social support was associated with good adherence