Description:
<jats:title>Abstract:</jats:title>
<jats:p>Pill counts with calculated adherence percentages are used in many settings to monitor adherence, but can be undermined by patients discarding pills to hide nonadherence. Pill counts suggesting that >100% of prescribed doses were taken can signal “pill dumping.” We defined “overadherence” among a cohort of 300 HIV-infected adolescents as having greater than one-third of pill counts with >100% adherence during a year of follow-up. Apparent overadherence was more common in those with virologic failure than in those with suppressed viral loads (33% vs 13%, χ<jats:sup>2</jats:sup>
<jats:italic toggle="yes">P</jats:italic> = 0.001). Pill count adherence repeatedly >100% may identify HIV-infected adolescents at increased risk of treatment failure.</jats:p>