title: A study of adherence to DOTS regimen among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in West Tripura District.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Noncompliance to the DOTS regimen leads to treatment failure, relapse, MDR tuberculosis, XDR tuberculosis etc. requiring more prolonged & expensive therapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the adherence rate among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in west Tripura district and to study the factors affecting adherence to DOTS regimen among pulmonary tuberculosis patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 220 pulmonary tuberculosis patients registered for treatment with DOTS therapy; under six randomly selected DMC of West Tripura District.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study revealed that the adherence rate among the pulmonary TB patients was 84.50 percent. Male tuberculosis patients had 87.10 percent less chance of being adherent to the DOTS regimen in reference to females, and Cat I patients were 8.96 times (C.I. 2.689-29.857) more adherent to the therapy compared to the retreatment cases. Again, patients whose continuation phase was supervised as per the guidelines of DOTS were 12.07 times more adherent to the therapy. PTB patients who had the knowledge of supervised therapy in DOTS and curability of the disease, were 4.70 times (C.I. 1.39-15.79) and 9.39 times (C.I. 1.03-85.99) more adherent to the therapy, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study showed good adherence to the regimen among pulmonary tuberculosis patients in spite of being a difficult area. It may also help in planning and implementation of tuberculosis control measures by addressing and overcoming the barriers regarding treatment completion.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Govt. Medical College, India. Electronic address: drrituparnad@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rituparna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Govt. Medical College, India.
authors.forename: Subrata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baidya
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Govt. Medical College, India.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Agartala Govt. Medical College, India.
authors.forename: Shishir
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D023801:Directly Observed Therapy; D004522:Educational Status; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019233:Retreatment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy*; D055815:Young Adult; D016903:Drug Monitoring
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents
keywords: Adherence; DOTS; Pulmonary tuberculosis; West Tripura District