Relation of knowledge and attitude with control of medication in tuberculosis patients in Ahvaz-Iran

Although directly observed treatment (DOT) strategy had decreased tuberculosis (TB) mortality, but in developing countries, TB is yet one of the leading cause of deaths. Inappropriate treatment regimens and poorly planned and one of the TB control programs have contributed to rise in its incidence. The purpose of this study was to describe knowledge, attitude and compliance with tuberculosis treatment.

This sescriptive – analytic study was done on 167 tuberculosis patients in Ahvaz-Iran during 2009. A questionnaire, observation, sputum smear, potts – cozart test (for detect of isoniazide metabolites in urine) was used for data collection. Reability of questionarie was determined by alpha-cronbach correlation method (α=0.81). Data analyzed with Chi-Square test.

The findings showed that 52.7%, 35.3% and 12% of the patients demonstrated good, midscores and poor adherence to drug regiment respectively. Also there was a significant relation beween control of medication and knowledge and attitude in tuberculosis patients (P<0.05).

This study showed that a half of patients used medication according to DOT strategy, knowledge and attitude were effective on quality of adherence to the medication.