The impact of knowledge and attitudes on adherence to tuberculosis treatment: a case-control study in a Moroccan region.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Tachfouti, Nabil Slama, Katia Berraho, Mohammed Nejjari, Chakib
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	BackgroundAlthough tuberculosis (TB) care is provided free of charge in Morocco, a high number of patients voluntarily interrupt their treatment before the end. Treatment Default is a major obstacle in the fight against the disease. The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of knowledge and attitudes toward TB on treatment adherence.MethodsCase-control study of 290 TB patients (85 defaulters and 205 controls). A defaulter was defined as a TB patient who interrupted treatment for two months or longer. Socio-demographic measurements, knowledge and attitude were collected by face to face anonymous questionnaire. Khi-square test was conducted to examine differences in TB attitudes and knowledge according to treatment adherence.ResultsThe mean age of participants was 31.7 ± 12.0 years. Monthly income was under 2000 MAD (180 €) for 82% of them. Over sixty four percent were illiterate or had a basic educational level. Microbial cause was known by 17.2% respondents; 20.5% among adherent patients versus 9.4% (p=0.02). The fact that the disease is curable was more known by adherent patients: 99.0% versus 88.2% (p < 0.01). Eighty tree per cent of patients had been informed about treatment duration and consequences of not completing treatment: 89.0% among adherent patients versus 69.7% (p<0.001). The main reason evoked for defaulting was the sensation of being cured (72.9% of defaulters).ConclusionThis study shows a poor knowledge on TB especially among non adherent patients. This finding justifies the need to incorporate patient's education into current TB case management.
Journal	The Pan African Medical Journal
Volume Number	12
PubMed Central reference number	PMC3428172
PubMed reference number	22937192
e-ISSN	19378688
Language	English
Publisher	The African Field Epidemiology Network
Publisher Date	2012-06-28
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © Nabil Tachfouti et al.
Subject Keyword	Tuberculosis Non-adherence DOT knowledge attitudes treatment Morocco
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Medicine