Reducing Alcohol Consumption to Improve ART Adherence – PLWA

RISHTA: Reducing Alcohol Consumption to Improve ART Adherence in PLWA in India

Alcohol and ART adherence: Assessment, Intervention and Modeling in India

The number of people living with HIV in India exceeds 2 million. India faces a major challenge in providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) services in the next decades to several million people who live with or will acquire HIV/AIDS. At the same time, rising levels of alcohol consumption in HIV vulnerable and infected populations constitutes a formidable barrier to maintaining adherence. It has been well established that a high degree of adherence (> 95%) to Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS is necessary to prevent disease progression and transmission. Male use of alcohol exceeds 30% in urban areas of western and northern states. This five year NIAAA funded project seeks to: provide a baseline understanding of current ART implementation and alcohol and other challenges to ART adherence; identify and test individual, group and community interventions that can reduce alcohol consumption as a central factor in enhancing adherence; and develop predictive models for use in India and elsewhere that provides a basis for allocating intervention resources in the most cost-effective way to maximize adherence, reduce years and quality of life lost to HIV, and minimize HIV transmission.

The study will investigate how alcohol is integrated into existing ART services, adapt programs to include alcohol counseling, and model factors contributing to adherence to estimate the impact of interventions on reduced HIV infections and the quality and quantity of life for PLWHAs.