Strategies to Promote Adherence to Treatment of Tuberculosis Patients

Objectives: To review the best available research literature that investigates the effectiveness of strategies to promote adherence to treatment of patient with pulmonary tuberculosis. Questions: 1. What are the existing strategies to promote adherence to treatment of patient with pulmonary tuberculosis? 2. What is the best strategy to promote adherence to tuberculosis treatment of patient with pulmonary tuberculosis? Criteria for considering studies for this review: Type of participants: This review will consider all studies that included adults (over 15 years) diagnosed with smear positive and smear negative pulmonary tuberculosis in community setting who started a new course of TB treatment or who has taken anti-TB drugs for less than 4 weeks and regardless of HIV infection. Type of intervention: Interventions of interest are those related to strategies to promote adherence to treatment including Directly Observed Treatment (DOT), Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS), health education, home visit, self-administrated or supervised therapy, reminders and prompts to re-attend, financial incentives to return, reinforced counseling, and having lay health workers. Type of outcome measures: Completion rate means percentage of patients who completed the required treatment course and no result of sputum exam. Cure rate means percentage of patients who negative sputum exam at the end of treatment and/or at least one previous. Success rate means the sum of completion rate and cure rate.