Certain barriers to uptake of long-acting ART, such as good ad- herence to current regimens and aversion to injections, may contribute to continued demand for daily oral tablets among patients with HIV, according to findings published in AIDS. Douglas Barthold, PhD, and colleagues assessed
sociodemographic, HIV-related, and other health-related predictors of a preference for current
treatment regimens versus long-acting ART among 700 people with HIV. In this co- hort, 11% of
participants selected their current daily treatment over long-acting ART in all dis- crete choice
experiment tasks outlined. Certain characteristics, including less education, good adherence to
current ART, and greater aversion to injections, were associated with a preference for current
daily regimens versus long-acting ART. “Gaps in ART uptake and adherence remain, and emerging
[long-acting] ART treat- ments show promise to address these challenges and help a larger portion
of [patients with HIV] to achieve viral suppression,” Dr. Barthold and colleagues wrote. “Future
research should focus on overcoming barriers that impact preferences for [long-acting] ART among
those patients who could benefit most from this innovation.”
