RESUMO

AIM: To elicit patients' preferences for HIV/AIDS treatment characteristics in Colombia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A best-worst scaling case was used to provide a ranking of 26 HIV/AIDS treatment characteristics that were similar to a previous study conducted in Germany. In each choice task, participants were asked to choose the most important and the least important treatment characteristics from a set of five from the master list. Using the Hierarchical Bayes method, relative importance scores were calculated. Sub-group analyses were conducted according to sex, education, source of infection, symptoms, and age. RESULTS: A total of 195 patients fully completed the questionnaire. The three most important characteristics were "drug has very high efficacy" (relative importance score [RIS] = 10.1), "maximum prolongation of life expectancy" (RIS = 9.7), and "long duration of efficacy" (RIS = 7.4). Sub-group analysis showed only three significant (but minor) differences between older and younger people. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that treatment characteristics regarding efficacy and prolongation of life are particularly important for patients in Colombia. Further investigation on how patients make trade-offs between these important characteristics and incorporating this information in clinical and policy decision-making would be needed to improve adherence with HIV/AIDS medication.

Assuntos

Antirretrovirais/uso terapêutico , Infecções por HIV/tratamento farmacológico , Preferência do Paciente , Síndrome da Imunodeficiência Adquirida/tratamento farmacológico , Adulto , Fatores Etários , Antirretrovirais/administração & dosagem , Antirretrovirais/efeitos adversos , Teorema de Bayes , Comportamento de Escolha , Colômbia , Tomada de Decisões , Esquema de Medicação , Escolaridade , Comportamentos Relacionados com a Saúde , Humanos , Expectativa de Vida , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Índice de Gravidade de Doença , Fatores Sexuais , Fatores Socioeconômicos

RESUMO

This study explored the health beliefs about eating habits and physical activity (PA) of Surinamese immigrants of Indian (Hindustani) descent to examine how health education messages to prevent obesity can be made more culturally sensitive. Indians are known for their increasing obesity incidence and are highly vulnerable for obesity-related consequences such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Therefore they might benefit from culturally sensitive health education messages that stimulate healthy eating habits and increase PA levels. In order to examine how health education messages aimed at preventing obesity could be adapted to Indian culture, we interviewed eight Hindustanis living in The Netherland, and conducted two focus groups (n = 19) with members from a Surinamese Hindustani community. Results showed cultural implications that might affect the effectiveness of health education messages: karma has a role in explaining the onset of illness, traditional eating habits are perceived as difficult to change, and PA was generally disliked. We conclude that health education messages aimed at Hindustani immigrants should recognize the role of karma in explaining the onset of illness, include more healthy alternatives for traditional foods, pay attention to the symbolic meaning of food, and suggest more enjoyable and culturally sensitive forms of PA for women.