SETTING Standardised tuberculosis (TB) treatment through directly observed therapy (DOT) is available in South Africa, but the level of adherence to standardised TB treatment and its impact on treatment outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVES To describe adherence to standardised TB treatment and provision of DOT, and analyse its impact on treatment outcome. METHODS We utilised data collected for a...

BACKGROUND Directly observed therapy (DOT), as recommended by the World Health Organization, is used in many countries to deliver tuberculosis (TB) treatment. The effectiveness of community-based (CB DOT) versus clinic DOT has not been adequately assessed to date. We compared TB treatment outcomes of CB DOT (delivered by community health workers or community volunteers), with those achieved thr...

Objective To understand the situations and communications experienced by caregivers of children with tuberculosis (TB) with regard to directly observed therapy (DOT). Method A descriptive exploratory study with a qualitative approach was applied and developed in the ambulatory of Programa Einstein na Comunidade de Paraisópolis (PECP). The data were collected using semi-structured interviews of ...

Background. Tuberculosis is a major public health problem in South Africa, made worse by poor adherence to and frequent interruption of treatment. Direct observation (DO) of tuberculosis patients taking their drugs is supposed to improve treatment completion and outcome. We compared DO with self-supervision, in which patients on the same drug regimen are not observed taking their pills, to asse...

Our objective was to illustrate the effects of using stricter standards for the quality of evidence used in decision analytic modeling. We created a simple 10-parameter probabilistic Markov model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of directly observed therapy (DOT) for individuals with newly diagnosed HIV infection. We evaluated quality of evidence on the basis of U.S. Preventive Services Task ...

Programs implementing community-based directly observed therapy (DOT) have demonstrated success in the treatment of patients with tuberculosis. However, given complexities in the management and treatment of patients infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), the utilization of community-based DOT to treat MDR-TB patients has only recently been successfully attempted. We describe t...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of a peer-delivered intervention to promote short-term (6-month) and long-term (12-month) adherence to HAART in a Mozambican clinic population. DESIGN A 2-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted between October 2004 and June 2006. PARTICIPANTS Of 350 men and women (> or = 18 years) initiating HAART, 53.7% were female, and 97% were on 1 fixed-dose combi...

The success of potent antiretroviral treatment for HIV infection is primarily determined by adherence. We systematically review the evidence of effectiveness of interventions to increase adherence to antiretroviral treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. We identified 27 relevant reports from 26 studies of behavioural, cognitive, biological, structural, and combination interventions done between 2003 ...