Assessment of Patient Adherence to Tuberculosis Treatment in Dessie Referral Hospital, South Wollo, Ethiopia

Background: Poor adherence to treatment of tuberculosis is common despite various interventions aimed at improving treatment completion. Lack of a comprehensive and holistic understanding of barriers to and facilitators of, treatment adherence is currently a major obstacle to find effective solutions. Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess patient adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment on DOTS regimen and factors that affect adherence. Methods: In this study both quantitative methods was used. For the quantitative method the records of a cohort of patients were followed retrospectively to see the treatment outcome; patient registration book from January 2007 to June 2010 was reviewed. Result: out of 1050 patients enrolled in the study 207(21.6%) of patients were non adherent and 188(90.82%) of the non-adherent patients were in the continuation phase of treatment. Patients outside 10km radius were 3.423 times non adherent than TB patients living in Dessie town and within 10km radius. Conclusion: Patients’ decisions to stop taking medication were influenced by a number of interacting factors. Adherence to the long course of tuberculosis treatment is a complex, dynamic phenomenon with a wide range of interacting factors impacting on treatment taking behavior. The findings of this study could help inform the development of patient centered interventions and of interventions to address structural barriers to treatment adherence. It has been seen also that the non-adherence rate of this study setting is high, and the main determinant factors of treatment non adherence are address and HIV status of the patient.