Alcohol use in HIV care programs

Uganda is one of the highest consumer of alcohol in the world. However, HIV care and treatment programs have limited evidence based strategies for alcohol use among persons living with HIV. Instead HIV care and treatment programs have adopted a no alcohol position when on ART policy to deal with poor adherence among patients in care programs. In our findings, a half of the patients interviewed (50%, 95% CI 45-55) consumed alcohol. Men were more likely to consume alcohol compared to women (OR= 2.39, 95% CI 1.53-3.72) and lack of information on adverse effects of alcohol was associated with alcohol use. (OR= 0.54, 95% CI 0.33-0.86). HIV prevention and control programs need to consider alcohol use in reducing the rate of HIV transmission and re-infection among PLH in resource limited settings.