Abstract
Author(s): AdityaSenan,TR. Ashok Kumar and T.Sivakumar
Background:Impact of DOTS in dropping TB incidence has been restricted by non-compliance to DOTS treatment. The Identifying factors affectingcompliance to TB treatmentwill give insights into the reasons behind high defaulter and subsequently low treatment success rates. Objective:To evaluate the reasons, why patients are non-compliant to TB treatment and thus to make recommendations, according to the findings and improve quality of life of patients.Methods:A quantitative, hospital based, prospective observational case study on default TB patients who are in TB treatment during January 2014 and June 2014 in Government Hospital Erode under RNTCP was conducted. Results:A total of 56 default TB patients from among 569 patients registered(45 males and 11 females) were interviewed. The most common reason for default arefelt better and stopped the treatment (33.92%).Other important reasons were lack of counseling (30.94%), side effects following medication (19.64%), lack of time (8.92%), fear of adverse reaction (8.92%), and lack of family support (8.92%). Conclusions:Non-compliance with anti-tuberculosis treatment is still relatively frequent and mostly associated with lack of counseling and due to fear of adverse drug reaction. With this study we are suggesting that proper monitoring of various factors that are causing patients to withdraw from TB treatment identification can play an important role in improving treatment adherence and thus improve quality of health in TB patients.