Saeed Ahmad Khan, Gul Samber Khan, Bashir Ullah, Mobinur Rehman.
Correlation of compliance of anti-tuberculous therapy with various demographic factors.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;6(1):97-9.

Objective: To see the association of compliance of anti-tuberculous therapy with various demographic variables. Subjects and methods: This was a retrospective follow-up study of 100 consecutive patients of pulmonary tuberculosis registered between August 2010 and August 2011. The venue of this study was Department of Medicine, Sandman provincial Hospital Quetta. All included patients were >15 years, and had either previous history of tuberculosis or had fever, cough, weight loss, night sweats etc. Patients who were found to be non–tuberculous were excluded from the study. Treatment was given in two phases. The compliance of the patients was judged regarding: age, gender, occupation, socio-economic status, pre-treatment smear result, and immigrant status. Using computer-based software SPSS-10 carried out analysis of the data. Results: Out of 100 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis included in this study, 56 were males and 44 females. The ratio of male to female was 1.2:1. The age range was 15-70 years. An overall compliance at the end of 6 months therapy was found to be 53 %. In the age group 15-30 years, 45.5% completed the therapy of 6 months while in the age group 31-45, 68.4% of the patients, and in age group 61-75 years completed the therapy of 6 months. 59.1% of the females and 48.2 % of the males completed the treatment of 6 months. The patient’s compliance at the end of therapy was best in the house bound 58.3%, followed by servicemen in whom 57.1% completed the treatment. Compliance was lowest in the labourers, 47.1%. P value was 0.9993 (not significant) 72.1% of the patients having sputum positive for AFB and 38.6% with negative pre-treatment sputum results completed the treatment of 6 months. (P value was 0.3187). 67.5% of the native patients and 43.3 % of the immigrant patients completed the treatment. P value was 0.5106. Conclusion: Following factors are associated with good compliance: age group 61-75 years, female gender, service man, sputum positive and native status.

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