Dosing on time: Developing adherent practice with highly active anti-retroviral therapy

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Abstract
With the advent of effective but demanding anti-retroviral treatment regimes for people with HIV, there has been a renewed interest in the study of medication adherence. This qualitative study aimed to examine how gay men using Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) negotiate the demands of their regimen in the context of patterns and disruptions in their day-to-day round. We interviewed 16 gay men using HAART about techniques they use to remember medication, how they time medication, the patterns of their daily lives, and how they incorporate their HAART regimes into these. Some of the themes that arose in people's accounts of negotiating HAART prescriptions included (1) the private or intimate characterization of the act of dosing; (2) the existence of social schedules that could be used to time the act of dosing; and (3) the construction of dosing within everyday domestic routines, which are generically organized, and can be used to prompt and organize the dosing act in relation to other everyday activities. We conclude that an awareness of the social and lived construction of periodicity, and of the signifying activity of bodily routines, may be used in efforts to improve adherence to medication.

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