Comparative evaluation of a modified directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) with standard WHO strategy.

Abstract

This is a prospective, analytical intervention study carried out at the Colombo Chest Clinic with, New, sputum positive, pulmonary tuberculosis patients. The study was conducted over a period of one year commencing from May 2003. The standard Institutional-based Directly Observed Treatment (Dot) strategy was compared with a directly observed home-based strategy with a familymember serving as the DOT supervisor using a randomly selected sample of 17 patients in each group. This study demontrated that a home-based Directly Observed Treatment Strategy supervised by a family member proved to be better in improving compliance than the current health worker administered DOTS. The majority of treatment supervisors were either spouses of the patients