Project Summary
Regular clinic attendance is essential for successful HIV treatment, enabling timely antiretroviral therapy (ART) refills, clinical monitoring, and laboratory testing. Despite the expansion of differentiated service delivery (DSD) models in Uganda, missed scheduled clinic visits among people living with HIV (PLHIV) remain a major public health concern and threaten long-term treatment outcomes. Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa shows that between 30% and 60% of PLHIV are lost to follow-up after initiating ART, while studies in Uganda suggest that nearly one-third of patients miss at least one scheduled visit.
This study aims to determine the prevalence of missed clinic visits, associated factors, self-reported reasons, and support needs among adult PLHIV receiving care at urban and rural Health Centre IV facilities in South-Western Uganda. A health facility–based cross-sectional study will be conducted at Mbarara Municipal Council HCIV and Bwizibwera HCIV, enrolling 386 adult PLHIV using proportionate stratified consecutive sampling. Data will be collected through face-to-face interviews using a pretested questionnaire and verified against ART records.
The primary outcome will be missing at least one scheduled clinic visit in the preceding year. Multivariate logistic regression will be used to identify factors associated with missed visits, while patient-reported reasons and perceived support needs will be described. Findings from this study will provide context-specific evidence to inform targeted interventions, strengthen differentiated service delivery models, and improve retention in HIV care in similar resource-limited settings.
Funder: Self-funded
Principal Investigator: Dr. Rutebwa Rubarema Alex
Contact persons: Dr Alex Rutebwa and Dr Daniel Atwine
Completion date: 2026
Status: Publications and Dissemination activities