Impact of antiretroviral treatment non-adherence on the occurrence of cervicouterine squamous epithelial lesions in women living with HIV

Main Article Content

Dieudonné Kakusu
Olivier Nyakio
Justin Mongwa Mbikilile
Tchass Chasinga Baharanyi
Baudouin Manwa Bugandwa
Mukwege Denis

Abstract

Introduction: Adherence to antiretroviral therapy refers to the ability of a patient living with HIV to take their medication exactly as prescribed, respecting the doses, schedule, and duration of treatment. This study aims to determine the impact of non-adherence to antiretroviral treatment in women living with HIV on the occurrence of cervical squamous cell lesions.


Materials and method: This is a cross-sectional study of women who were confirmed HIV-positive by the Unigold test, followed up on an outpatient basis, and those who were hospitalized by the infectious diseases department and who voluntarily underwent cervical smears during the study period. The analyses were performed using JASP 0.095.4.0 software. The significance threshold for p was set at 0.05.


Results: We identified 79 women living with HIV. The average age of the study population was 41.3±10.7 years. 92.4% of patients living with HIV had abnormal cervical smears, with 77.2% showing LSIL. The risk of cervical squamous cell lesions was increased in patients living with HIV who did not adhere to their treatment, especially those on second-line antiretroviral therapy (OR 4.784, p=0.011).


Conclusion : This study suggests that non-adherence to treatment may increase the risk of developing cytopathological lesions, especially if patients have already experienced treatment failure with one of the antiretroviral lines.


Keywords: treatment adherence, antiretrovirals, cytoepithelial lesions, precancerous cervical lesions, HIV.

Article Details

How to Cite
Kakusu, D., Nyakio, O., Mongwa Mbikilile , J., Chasinga Baharanyi, T., Manwa Bugandwa, B., & Denis, M. (2026). Impact of antiretroviral treatment non-adherence on the occurrence of cervicouterine squamous epithelial lesions in women living with HIV. Kivu Medical Journal, 4(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.64263/kmj.v4i1.91
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