FACTORS AFFECTING MEDICATION COMPLIANCE IN PEOPLE WITH PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS: A STUDY BASED IN SITUBONDO; RURAL INDONESIA

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB), is a serious contagious disease which remains an urgent health problem in the world. Like the common cold, pulmonary TB is spread via the airborne route via coughing, sneezing, spitting or even talking, results in the dispersal of live tubercle bacilli, into the air. Situbondo is a district in East Java Indonesia where the dropout rate from TB medication programme is particularly high. This research aimed to identify the relationships between public characteristics, side effects of drugs, transportation, distance of the community health centre, and support of a designated person or 'treatment observer' and the dropout rate. The study uses a case control study design. The sample size was 72 consisting of 18 cases and 54 controls. Samples were selected by proportional stratified random sampling technique. Odds ratio value analyses were used to find the risk factors, and the logistic regression were used to identify the significance of the variables in relation to the drop out with α = 0.05. Statistically significant correlation were found as follows; education (p=0.002), knowledge (p=0.001), income (p=0.013) work (p=0.002) and, side effect of drugs (p=0.003), transportation (p=0.001) and support of the 'treatment observer' (p=0.001) to the drop out of patients with pulmonary TB. Based on these results, it was concluded that the drop out of patients with pulmonary TB is influenced not only by the internal factors namely patients' characteristics, but also external factors during medication. Changes to health services targeted at this patient population are suggested to increase overall compliance.