Background: Globally, about 1.8 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 were living with HIV by close of 2021, of these, about 1.5 million were living in sub-Saharan Africa. This study explored the influence of mass media campaigns in promoting adherence to antiretroviral therapies among adolescents living with HIV in southwestern Uganda. Methods: We conducted a phenomenological qualitative study design that was adopted to explore the role of mass media campaigns on adherence to antiretroviral therapy among adolescents at the adolescents' HIV clinic Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. The FGDs were conducted in Runyankole-Rukiga, and they were transcribed verbatim and later translated to English. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: We conducted 7 Focus Group Discussions with adolescents living with HIV aged 10-19 years and 5 key informants' interviews with the health care providers. Results from the analysis were grouped into three broad themes: awareness of mass media HIV campaigns promoting adherence to ART, influence of mass media campaigns on adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and preferred mass media mode of delivery by adolescents' living with HIV. Participants preferred broadcast media channels and messages that featured success stories of people living with HIV. Conclusion: HIV mass media campaigns influence adherence to antiretroviral therapy among people living with HIV. It is recommended that HIV-related media campaign designers consider the unique needs of adolescents while designing and airing out various media campaigns. This will influence their positive living and thus lead to their increased health life expectancy.

Background: Globally about 1.7 million adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 were living with HIV in 2019, of these, about 1.5 million were living in sub-Saharan Africa and approximately above 127,000 were living in Uganda. However uptake of ART is still low among adolescents especially in low income countries due to lack of information they need to understand HIV and its management. Therefore, we set out to explore the influence of mass media campaigns on promoting ART uptake among HIV positive adolescents in Southwestern Uganda.Methods: A phenomenological qualitative cross-sectional study design was adopted to explore the influence of mass media campaigns on the promotion of ART Uptake among adolescents. We conducted 7 FGDs with Adolescents living with HIV aged 10-19 years and 5 key informants’ interviews with the health care workers in the adolescents’ HIV clinic at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. Data was transcribed verbatim and translated from Runyankole to English. Two researchers reviewed all the transcripts, developed a codebook identifying the emerging subthemes from which we manually generated the themes in relation to our research question. Results: Results revealed a large breadth of awareness and knowledge possessed by adolescents about mass media campaigns. This ranged from knowing the various messages that were being aired out and the channels which carried these messages. These campaigns acted as catalysts to ART uptake and adherence since they inspired participants to accept themselves thus managing a number of limitations. Our participants preferred broadcast media channels and messages that featured successful stories of HIV positive living people. Conclusion: HIV mass media campaigns promoted ART uptake among HIV positive adolescents. It is recommended that HIV health service providers take into account the unique needs and nature of adolescents while designing and airing out various media campaigns which would influence their positive living and thus leading to their increased health life expectancy.