Evaluation of Adverse Drug Events Among Patients Infected With Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Those Co-infected With Tuberculosis at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Background: Adverse drug event (ADE) is an injury caused by the use of any particular drug. There is limited information available on the prevalence, types, and determinants of adverse drug events (ADEs) between patients infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and those co-infected with tuberculosis. Main Objective: The primary purpose of this research was to evaluate the prevalence, types and determinants of adverse drug events among patients infected with HIV and those co-infected with tuberculosis at Kenyatta National Hospital. Methodology: The research was conducted at Kenyatta National Hospital, Comprehensive Care Center (KNH-CCC). The study design was an analytical cross-sectional design with two arms comprising of patients infected with HIV only and those with HIV and tuberculosis co-infection. Each arm comprised 42 participants selected using a simple random sampling approach. Data was collected using a researcher-administered questionnaire and analyzed by utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics at the level of significance of 0.05. Approval to undertake this analysis was sought from KNH-UON ERC and the Kenyatta National Hospital management. Results: The most prevalent adverse drug event was discolored urine/tears (42, 50%), followed by skin rash/itchiness and tiredness/weakness with each having a prevalence of 30 (35.7%). The prevalence of hand numbness, tingling, feet numbness, discolored urine/tears, skin rash/itchiness, and tiredness/weakness ADEs were statistically different between HIV infected patients and those co-infected with tuberculosis. Discolored urine/tears (p<0.001) was the only adverse drug event with a significant p-value (adjusted OR=767.50; 95% CI=43.46, 13554.25) after a multivariate analysis was done and confounders were adjusted. Conclusions: Adverse drug events are more likely to occur in HIV-infected adults taking anti-tuberculosis drugs than their HIV-infected counterparts not taking anti-tuberculosis drugs. Adverse drug events should be managed appropriately in the clinical settings according to the Kenyan guidelines for HIV and tuberculosis treatment. Studies to further investigate the determinants associated with adverse drug events are needed in the future. Future studies that require proper data collection are also needed to correlate the prevalence of ADEs with socio-demographic characteristics.