OBJECTIVES: REALITY was a non-interventional, retrospective and multi-centre study, aiming to describe the clinical and sociodemographic features of HIV patients initiating Raltegravir (RAL) (bid)-based regimens, in Portugal. A secondary objective was to assess the satisfaction of patients with RAL at the study inclusion visit, according to a self-reported questionnaire (HIV Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire- status version, HIVTSQs (^© Bradley).

METHODS: The study included naïve and treatment-experienced adult patients infected with HIV-1, who initiated treatment with RAL during 2015-2017, from 11 Portuguese hospitals. The information on the patient’s treatment satisfaction with RAL was collected using a linguistically validated Portuguese version of the HIVTSQs, completed at the study inclusion visit by patients on RAL. This 10-item questionnaire was divided in two subscales (General Satisfaction/Clinical and Lifestyle/Ease) each with scores ranging from 0-30 where higher scores indicate greater satisfaction. All 10 items were summed to produce the treatment satisfaction score (range: 0-60 points): higher scores indicating greater satisfaction with the treatment.

RESULTS:A total of 244 patients, out of 302 recruited between Jul2018-Apr2019, were on RAL-based regimens at the inclusion visit, and therefore filled the HIVTSQs^©. Patients on RAL-based regimens reported a high satisfaction with Raltegravir-based treatment, with mean scores of 28.1 points for General Satisfaction/Clinical and 27.3 points for Lifestyle/Ease. The mean total score for overall Treatment Satisfaction was 55.4 points. This total score was higher for women than for men (56.27 vs. 55.09, respectively; p=0.0191). No differences were observed regarding Treatment Satisfaction score between those with late diagnosis vs non-late diagnosis and between CDC stage. Also, no statistically significant differences were observed when considering the other quantitative variables tested.

CONCLUSIONS: Treatment satisfaction with Raltegravir-based regimens was high, which has been shown to be associated with better treatment adherence and might be expected to result in fewer patients discontinuing therapy.