Factors influencing non-adherence of Tuberculosis medication among adults at Jericho Health Center

Abstract

Tuberculosis patients have decreasing compliance with treatment leading to emergence of multidrug resistant strains. Consequently, patients are dying of tuberculosis and the spread of the disease in the community is high. The Kenya TB defaulter rate is 15%. Jericho, Nairobi is one of the hospitals experiencing the challenges of TB drug incompliance.10% of TB patient’s admissions in Jericho healthcente are due to TB drug non-compliance which has led to spread of infections and development of Multi-Drug Resistant status. The main objective in this study was to evaluate the factors that interfere with adherence of TB medication among adult patients suffering from TB at Jericho Health center, Makadara sub-county in relation to patient related, societal related, drug related and facility related. Descriptive research design was applied and simple random sampling method used to select respondents. Data was collected using questionnaires, analyzed using SPSS version 23 and presented in both inferential and descriptive statistics. The major side effects of TB medication (P=0.001), having a good relationship with the family (P=0.003), the treatment category (P=0.009), the easiest source of getting TB information (P=0.018), Health workers/community workers provide enough time to listen to problems (P =0.002) were found to be significant with the adherence to TB medication.