On Wednesday 6 May 2020, S.K. Been will defend her PhD dissertation, entitled: ‘HIV Treatment Adherence and Adherence Improving Interventions Among Migrants Living With HIV in the Netherlands’.
In Western Europe, people living with HIV (PLWH) who are born outside of the country in which they reside (migrants) are considered to be a ‘key population’ as they do poorer in all steps of the continuum of care compared to PLWH born in Western Europe. This continuum of care moves from individuals becoming aware of their HIV positive status via testing (‘diagnosed’) to being linked to care (‘linked to care’), kept in care (‘retained in care’), on treatment with antiretroviral therapy (‘on ART’), and, at the end of continuum, having undetectable HIV RNA (‘viral suppression’). The general aim of this dissertation was to: investigate treatment adherence among migrants living with HIV (MLWH) with a specific focus on adherence to combination Antiretroviral Therapy (cART), explore factors associated with adherence, and assess the feasibility of interventions that may improve cART adherence in MLWH.
The PhD defences will not take place publicly in the Senate Hall or Professor Andries Queridoroom due to the coronavirus. The candidates will defend their thesis online.