↓ Skip to main content

Are tuberculosis patients adherent to prescribed treatments in China? Results of a prospective cohort study

Overview of attention for article published in Infectious Diseases of Poverty, May 2016
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
4 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
28 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
140 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Are tuberculosis patients adherent to prescribed treatments in China? Results of a prospective cohort study
Published in
Infectious Diseases of Poverty, May 2016
DOI 10.1186/s40249-016-0134-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Xun Lei, Ke Huang, Qin Liu, Yong-Feng Jie, Sheng-Lan Tang

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) patients face numerous difficulties adhering to the long-term, rigorous TB treatment regimen. Findings on TB patients' treatment adherence vary across existing literature and official reports. The present study attempted to determine the actual treatment adherence of new TB patients and to identify factors leading to non-adherence. A prospective cohort of 481 newly confirmed TB patients from three counties in western China were enrolled during June to December 2012 and was followed until June 2013. Patients who missed at least one dose of drugs or one follow-up re-examination during the treatment course were deemed as non-adherent. Influencing factors were identified using a logistic regression model. A total of 173 (36.0 %) patients experienced non-adherence and the loss to follow-up cases reached 136 (28.2 %). Only 13.9 % of patients took drugs under direct observation, and 60.5 % of patients were supervised by phone calls. Factor analyses suggested that patients who were observed by family members (OR:5.54, 95 % CI:2.87-10.69) and paying monthly service expenses above 450 RMB (OR:2.08, 95 % CI:1.35-3.19) were more likely to be non-adherent, while supervision by home visit (OR:0.06, 95 % CI:0.01-0.28) and phone calls (OR:0.27, 95 % CI:0.17-0.44) were protective factors. Despite recent efforts, a large proportion of newly confirmed TB patients could not adhere to standard TB treatment, and patients' lost to follow-up was still a serious problem. Poor treatment supervision and heavy financial burden might be the main causes for non-adherence. More needs to be done to enhance treatment supervision policies and financial supports to both health providers and TB patients.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 140 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Switzerland 1 <1%
Unknown 139 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 22 16%
Student > Master 20 14%
Student > Bachelor 13 9%
Student > Postgraduate 12 9%
Student > Ph. D. Student 11 8%
Other 21 15%
Unknown 41 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 34 24%
Nursing and Health Professions 30 21%
Social Sciences 8 6%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 4%
Engineering 3 2%
Other 10 7%
Unknown 50 36%