A Study on the Role of Mobile Phone Communication in Tuberculosis DOTS Treatment.

No Thumbnail Available
Date
2013-12-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
BACKGROUND Every year a lot of Tuberculosis TB patients undergo Directly Observed Treatment Short course DOTS in Salem city one of the high TB districts in South India Mobile phone usage among these patients and health workers is common Mobile phone communication has a great potential in TB treatment OBJECTIVES To analyze the mobile phone usage and its effectiveness in TB DOTS treatment MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross sectional survey with 150 TB patients was followed by a focus group discussion with treatment supervisors DOTS providers and health workers RESULTS Majority of patients use mobile phones to make calls to health workers to clarify their doubts on side effects food and symptoms of the disease TB treatment supervisors effectively use mobile phones to counsel patients to adhere to the treatment regimen Patients see mobile phones as a useful communication tool in TB treatment though they prefer direct interpersonal communication with health workers Though the mobile ownership is 68 among the TB patients many of them are not able to send text messages or read messages in English CONCLUSION Mobile phone possession and usage is high among the patients Patients need to be trained to use mobile phone features such as alarm voice mail and interactive voice response Incentives like free talk time and short message service SMS will encourage patients to communicate frequently with health workers thereby increasing the chances of better adherence to DOTS SMS could be made available in the regional languages
Description
Keywords
At risk for a particular disease or infection, Client, Community-based health worker, Communication roadblocks, Pre-prototype, Tuberculosis, Short-term, Treatment adherence, Remote client-to-provider consultations (Telemedicine), Voice, SMS, Text, Audio
Citation
Collections