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: Introduction: Evidence‐based intervention strategies to improve adherence among individuals living with chronic conditions are critical in ensuring better outcomes. In this systematic review, we assessed the impact of interventions that aimed to promote adherence to treatment for chronic conditions. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar and CINAHL databases to identify relevant studies published between the years 2000 and 2023 and used the QUIPS assessment tool to assess the quality and risk of bias of each study. We extracted data from eligible studies for study characteristics and description of interventions for the study populations of interest. Results: Of the 32,698 total studies/records screened, 2814 were eligible for abstract screening and of those, 497 were eligible for full‐text screening. A total of 82 studies were subsequently included, describing a total of 58,043 patients. Of the total included studies, 58 (70.7%) were related to antiretroviral therapy for HIV, 6 (7.3%) were anti‐hypertensive medication‐related, 12 (14.6%) were anti‐diabetic medication‐related and 6 (7.3%) focused on medication for more than one condition. A total of 54/82 (65.9%) reported improved adherence based on the described study outcomes, 13/82 (15.9%) did not have clear results or defined outcomes, while 15/82 (18.3%) reported no significant difference between studied groups. The 82 publications described 98 unique interventions (some studies described more than one intervention). Among these intervention strategies, 13 (13.3%) were multifaceted (4/13 [30.8%] multi‐component health services‐ and community‐based programmes, 6/13 [46.2%] included individual plus group counselling and 3/13 [23.1%] included SMS or alarm reminders plus individual counselling). Discussion: The interventions described in this review ranged from adherence counselling to more complex interventions such as mobile health (mhealth) interventions. Combined interventions comprised of different components may be more effective than using a single component in isolation. However, the complexity involved in designing and implementing combined interventions often complicates the practicalities of such interventions. Conclusions: There is substantial evidence that community‐ and home‐based interventions, digital health interventions and adherence counselling interventions can improve adherence to medication for chronic conditions. Future research should answer if existing interventions can be used to develop less complicated multifaceted adherence intervention strategies., INTRODUCTION Patients on treatment for chronic conditions face multiple barriers to adherence, and no single intervention is deemed sufficient to ensure that high levels of adherence to treatment are maintained [...]

Introduction: Dolutegravir has replaced efavirenz in most low- and middle-income countries, due to better tolerability and formidable resistance profile, but dolutegravir side effects suggest alternatives are needed. We evaluated doravirine resistance in South Africa as a first step to assess whether doravirine may replace dolutegravir. Methods: A retrospective dataset was analysed for predicted doravirine susceptibility including sequences obtained from three patient groups. First, data from 277 patients initiating antiretroviral treatment (ART) were collected between February 2013 and October 2014 as part of a national survey. Second, data from 788 patients experiencing NNRTI-based ART failure were obtained between February 2013 and October 2014 as part of a national survey. Third, data derived from 584 patients who had genotypic drug resistance testing requested after NNRT-based failure as part of individual patient management between January 2016 and December 2019. Pol sequences were generated using validated population-based in-house genotyping and submitted to Stanford HIVdb v8.9. Results and discussion: Less than 5% of patients initiating ART presented with genotypic doravirine resistance, whereas most patients experiencing NNRTI-based ART failure presented with predicted intermediate (41.0%) or high-level resistance (43.8%) to doravirine. High-level resistance to doravirine was commonly predicted by the presence of at least three DRMs (79.7%). The predicted resistance profile to doravirine in ART-naive patients is promising, but less so in those experiencing failure to first-generation NNRTIs. Accumulation of NNRTI DRMs seems to be an important factor in the poor resistance prediction for doravirine. Conclusions: Although doravirine is approved as initial therapy in patients who are ART-naTve, it is currently recommended to obtain a genotype prior to the initiation of ART. Clinical studies are needed to ascertain whether predicted resistance profiles in ART naive and NNRTI-treated patients translate into poor clinical outcomes, especially in settings where genotypic resistance testing is not available. Keywords: HIV; drug resistance; antiretroviral treatment; doravirine; subtype C; South Africa, 1 | INTRODUCTION South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic globally with 7.5 million estimated infections and approximately 5.2 million HIV-infected people on antiretroviral treatment (ART) making it the biggest [...]

Introduction: When protease inhibitor (PI)-based second-line ART fails, guidelines recommend drug resistance testing and individualized third-line treatment. However, PI-resistant viral strains are rare and drug resistance testing is costly. We investigated whether less costly PI-exposure testing can be used to select those patients who would benefit most from drug resistance testing. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of South African adults living with HIV experiencing failure of ritonavir-boosted-lopinavi (LPV/r)-based second-line ART for whom drug resistance testing results were available. We included patients who received plasma-based drug resistance testing at a central South African reference laboratory in 2017 and patients who received dried blood spots (DBS)-based drug resistance testing at a rural South African clinic between 2009 and 2017. PI-exposure testing was performed on remnant plasma or DBS using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). Additionally, a low-cost immunoassay was used on plasma. Population genotypic drug resistance testing of the pol region was performed on plasma and DBS using standard clinical protocols. Results: Samples from 544 patients (494 plasma samples and 50 DBS) were included. Median age was 41.0 years (IQR: 33.3 to 48.5) and 58.6% were women. Median HIV-RNA load was 4.9 log10 copies/mL (4.3 to 5.4). Prevalence of resistance to the NRTI-backbone was 70.6% (349/494) in plasma samples and 56.0% (28/50) in DBS. Major PI-resistance mutations conferring high-level resistance to LPV/r were observed in 26.7% (132/494) of plasma samples and 12% (6/50) of DBS. PI-exposure testing revealed undetectable LPV levels in 47.0% (232/494) of plasma samples and in 60.0% (30/50) of DBS. In pooled analysis of plasma and DBS samples, detectable LPV levels had a sensitivity of 90% (84% to 94%) and a negative predictive failure of 95% (91% to 97%) for the presence of major LPV/r resistance. Conclusions: PI-exposure testing revealed non-adherence in half of patients experiencing failure on second-line ART and accurately predicted the presence or absence of clinically relevant PI resistance. PI-exposure testing constitutes a novel screening strategy in patients with virological failure of ART that can differentiate between different underlying causes of therapy failure and may allow for more effective use of limited resources available for drug resistance testing. Keywords: antiretroviral treatment; treatment failure; HIV drug resistance; adherence; drug level testing; low- and middle-income countries, 1 | INTRODUCTION Antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes are expanding rapidly to people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in an effort to control the HIV epidemic. First-line [...]