International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | October 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 10 Page 3773 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Oladigbolu RA et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2020 Oct;7(10):3773-3786 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Effect of telephone calls and text message reminder interventions on the adherence to antiretroviral drugs among HIV/AIDS clients receiving care in Sokoto state, Nigeria Remi A. Oladigbolu 1 *, Mansur O. Oche 2 , Mansur O. Raji 2 , Godwin J. Gana 1 , Zainab A. Ezenwoko 1 INTRODUCTION Human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) infection has spread over the last 30 years and has a great impact on health, welfare, employment and criminal justice sectors; affecting all social and ethnic groups throughout the world. 1 Recent epidemiological data by World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that HIV remains a public health issue that persistently drains the global economic sector having claimed more than 25 million lives over the last three decades. 2 Nigeria has the second largest HIV epidemic in the world and one of the highest rate of new ABSTRACT Background: Adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been proven to be a good predictor of clinical outcome among patients on ART. This study aimed to assess the effect of phone reminder interventions on the knowledge of Human immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV)/ Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), ART and adherence to ART drugs among non-adherent patients receiving care in Sokoto State. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted among 196 non-adherent HIV patients between February and July 2017. The intervention group received monthly telephone calls and weekly text messages for twelve weeks while the control group received only standard of care. Self-report adherence, forgetfulness to take ART and knowledge of HIV/AIDS and ART were measured pre- and post- intervention. Data were processed and analysed using IBM Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22 computer statistical software package. Results: At baseline, although majority of participants in both groups had good knowledge of HIV/AIDS, ART drug adherence, they were both non-adherent to ART and it was mainly due to forgetfulness. At post intervention, respondents with good knowledge and adherent to ART were significantly higher in the intervention group. There was also a significantly lower proportion of forgetfulness among the intervention group compared with control group ( 2 =47.57, p<0.001). Conclusion: The interventions were found to be effective. The Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) with the support of implementing partners need to integrate these interventions into clinical setting as part of comprehensive care for HIV care and treatment to assist in improving their knowledge of HIV/AIDS, ART and adherence to ART. Keywords: Non-adherence, ART, HIV/AIDS, Telephone call, Text message reminders, Sokoto 1 Department of Community Medicine, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto, Nigeria 2 Department of Community Health, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria Received: 25 June 2020 Revised: 06 August 2020 Accepted: 13 August 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Remi A. Oladigbolu, E-mail: rolad@ymail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20204339