Our analysis revealed five latent trajectories of adherence to ART, with the consistently moderate group accounting for the largest proportion of women (42%). Considering all non-ARV drugs, GBTM identified four polypharmacy categories, with 45% of the women following a low polypharmacy trajectory. The joint model did not reveal any apparent relationship between ART adherence and polypharmacy trajectories. Likewise, the sensitivity analyses that assessed 1) prescription-only medications and 2) non-HIV as a continuous variable did not identify any evidence of an interrelationship between both variables.
In the current analysis, GBTM provided a unique perspective on the evolving nature of WHIV adherence behavior, distinguishing five categories of adherence across time. Prior studies generally utilized a traditional method of categorizing adherence into two or, at most, three categories, which miss changes in adherence over time [19]. In general, the findings revealed that most predictors of membership in the continuously low and consistently moderate adherence trajectories (i.e., younger age, being non-Hispanic African American, higher education, any alcohol intake, being on ART for six or more years, and depression) have been described in the literature [20]. However, classifying women based on their adherence trajectories may shed new light on the design of a focused intervention to target these factors to improve adherence. These results revealed that women who were members of the high decreasing trajectory were more likely to consume high quantities of alcohol compared to women who were members of the moderate increasing. In addition to having a direct impact on medication-taking behavior, alcohol consumption has a negative impact on the immune system, which could result in HIV progression [21]. In another study of nearly one thousand WHIV, excessive alcohol consumption was found to be a predictor of poor adherence to ART [22]. Women in the high decreasing may benefit from combined behavioral interventions that address both adherence and alcohol consumption, as such interventions have been shown to reduce alcohol consumption and improve treatment outcomes [23].
The use of GBTM as a novel statistical approach proved to be beneficial in the analysis of polypharmacy data. The model revealed four trajectories, with 45% of all women classified in the consistently low group, which means they never used more than five medications concurrently with ART. In comparison, Ware et al [24] used GBTM to examine polypharmacy among men participating in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS); four groups were identified with 48% of participants falling into a non-polypharmacy group (less than five medications with ART). A notable difference was observed in the percentage of women who consistently remain in the high polypharmacy group compared to men in the MACS study (27.2% vs. 14.2%, respectively). A population-based study in Spain analyzed a large database (23,000 PWHIV) and found polypharmacy was more common among women than among men (45% vs 30%, respectively) [25]. High polypharmacy among women may be associated with higher rates of chronic illnesses than their male counterparts [26]. Our results showed that 17.5% of the women with polypharmacy started at a moderate level at the beginning of the study and then decreased gradually during the follow-up period. The women in this group may have stopped the use of drugs for acute illnesses or perhaps vitamins and/or herbal supplements. On the contrary, nearly 10% began with a low level of polypharmacy and gradually increased during the study. The gradual increase could be attributed to the development of chronic comorbidities over time.
Contrary to our hypothesis, neither the primary nor sensitivity analyses revealed any interrelationship between adherence groups and polypharmacy groups. Cantudo-Cuenca et al [26] examined the impact of polypharmacy on adherence to ART, as measured by pharmacy dispensing records and the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS), in a cross-sectional study in Spain (n = 594) and found that polypharmacy reduced adherence to ART. The difference between the two studies could be attributed to the difference in the data analysis methods, the short duration of follow-up (12 months), the smaller sample size, and the methods used to measure adherence. A possible explanation for our results is that there may be a presence of an effect modifier/s between adherence and polypharmacy, for example, depression or age. This assumption will be thoroughly investigated in further research.
Strengths of this analysis include the robust and rich data collected on a large sample size of women who were followed for an extended period, which allows the model to identify the trajectories of both variables. In addition, non-HIV medication data was well organized and mapped, making it easy to determine the number of non-HIV medications for each woman at each visit. This study was not without limitations. Firstly, adherence to ART was measured by self-report, which may have been affected by social desirability and recall biases [27]. Secondly, although women were recruited in WIHS from different parts of the country, the obtained results may not be generalizable to all women with HIV. Finally, we cannot rule out the possibility of unmeasured residual confounding.
In conclusion, dual GBTM did not identify an interrelationship between adherence to ART and polypharmacy. Future studies should consider examining the interrelationship between the trajectories of both adherence and polypharmacy using objective measures of adherence to ART.