INTERVENTION APPROACHES OF STIGMA RELATED TO TUBERCULOSIS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Considerable efforts and concurrent studies have been made to substantiate the control of tuberculosis (TB). The control was not achieved significantly, as the stigma is one of the significant barriers to controlling tuberculosis. It hampers the TB treatment’s determined targeted completion. However, despite countless measures to improve therapy completion, non-adherence to therapy remains a global issue. This systematic review is aimed at evaluating tuberculosis-related measures to increase adherence to treatment among patients with tuberculosis in developing countries. A systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Pro-Quest science Direct, Ovid, Spring, Global Health, and Cochrane) covering articles published between 2003 and 2019 was carried out using truncated search words such as “tuberculosis-related stigma,” TB Stigma,” “intervention,” “treatment adherence,” “treatment compliance" and "developing countries." We included information from developing countries addressing the stigma between TB patients and their anti-stigma intervention. Eight hundred sixty-seven articles have been retrieved, 346 have been excluded due to duplication, and 397 other non-relevant articles have been excluded at the title screening stage. Subsequently, after full-text articles were assessed for failing to meet inclusion criteria, 118 articles were excluded, and only six studies remained. The six articles have improved TB treatment outcomes with stigma intervention, including health education and counseling, TB club self-support, and psychological support interventions. Setting, resources and local TB epidemiology may vary in the optimal implementation of stigma interventions.