Abstract

STUDY ON ADHERENCE TO ANTI- TUBERCULOSIS DRUGS UNDER DOTS AND NON-DOTS AND THE FACTORS AFFECTING ADHERENCE

K. Geetha Krishna*, S. Ananthakrishnan, G. Tarun Reddy, G. Veeramani, Dr. S. Balasubramanian and Dr. K. Mudiyarasan

ABSTRACT

TB is a serious public health issue causing immense morbidity, mortality, and distress not only to individuals but also to communities. Unsuccessful treatment not only encourages the mortality but also increases further health and economic burden to the community. One of the reasons for unsuccessful treatment is the non-adherence to medication schedule by the patient and there are several reasons attributed to this non-adherence. Besides causing the health and economic issues the disease significantly affects the QoL of the patients. This single blinded interventional research was performed in Department of TB & CHEST of Rajah Muttiah Medical College Hospital (RMMCH) over 70 patients to assess patients adherence (MORISKY 8_ITEM MEDICATION ADHERENCE QUESTIONNAIRES) to TB treatment and the reasons for non-adherence, analyzing QOL of patients using WHO QOL BREF QUESTIONIARE for major domains and providing patient care like patient counseling, patient leaflet etc and measure the outcome of patient education. The overall mean score of WHO QOL BREF questionnaire at the time of admission was 29.87 and was improved to 60.02. The mean score of MORISKY8_ITEM MEDICATION ADHERENCE questionnaire was 88.4% at the final follow up which was comparatively higher than 53.9% during the first follow up. Our study shows that 56% was always adherent and 39% was mostly adherent. Out of 70, 15 patients (21.4%) experienced adverse drug reactions.

Keywords: Medication adherence, Quality of Life, Non-adherence.