Shared vision—a health education project designed to enhance adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment [Planning and Practice]

Setting: Two adjacent Cape Town Local Authority health clinics in Cape Town, South Africa, were selected. Clinic A was designated the ‘intervention clinic’ and Clinic B the ‘control clinic.’

Objective: To assess whether the combined strategy of a patient-centred interview plus the issuing of a patient education booklet would have the effect of increasing the adherence of notified pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients to prescribed treatment.

Design: A controlled intervention study was implemented using a cohort of the first 60 consecutive patients notified with pulmonary TB at both Clinic A and Clinic B; the patient cohort thus consisted of 120 patients.

Results: The risk of patient non-adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment was significantly reduced at the intervention clinic compared to the control clinic.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate the need for further operational research to assist health providers in developing standardised protocols of health education to enhance adherence to treatment in patients who require protracted treatment regimens.