Effectiveness of treatment on Quality of Life among Tuberculosis Patients- A case-control study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70066/jahm.v13i6.1968Keywords:
diagnosis, lung tuberculosis, quality of life, treatment, Case-control studyAbstract
Introduction:
Tuberculosis (TB) is a prominent infectious disease prevalent worldwide. Although there are effective treatment modalities, it does not address the issues that TB patients experience. In addition to the physical symptoms, people frequently see a reduction in their general quality of life (QOL). The SF-36 instrument was used to compare QOL of tuberculosis patients at the start and end of therapy and compare with non-TB controls.
Methods:
The prospective case-control study was carried out in the Department of General Medicine, at a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, India. Tuberculosis patients (n=28) and non-tuberculous patients (controls) (n=28) were recruited. The SF-36 questionnaire (eight categories) was administered to evaluate QOL. Ethics approval was obtained from institutional ethics committee. Written informed consent was obtained. Obtained data were statistically analyzed using SPSS software (version 16). p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results:
The results showed HR-QOL score of TB patients at start of therapy (49.5 ± 29.8) was lower than that of non-TB controls (77.8 ± 27.3) with p<0.001. HR-QOL score of TB patients at start and end of treatment. revealed a statistically significant difference (p<0.001). At the end of treatment of cases, there was no statistically significant difference (p<0.76) with non-TB controls.
Conclusion:
Patients with TB had a substantially worse health-related QOL; deficiencies were seen in every SF-36 questionnaire domain. HR-QOL improved by DOTS treatment, which helped it approach the levels of non-TB controls. Counselling TB patients on the advantages of DOTS therapy and highlighting its contribution to enhancing their QOL is crucial.
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