Educational measure for promoting adherence to treatment for tuberculosis

Abstract

The aim of this work is to determine the effect of the educational intervention to improve the language barrier on adherence to antituberculosis treatment in the paediatric population. Immigrant population is associated with factors that make it difficult to monitor the treatment and control of tuberculosis infection or disease properly such as language difficulties. 68 patients were included in this study. They came from 15 different countries. The patients/families were given written information (a leaflet) in the form of questions and answers about the most common doubts that people have about antituberculosis treatment. This leaflet was translated into 11 different languages: Spanish, Catalan, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, Romanian, Chinese, Urdu and Arabic. Six patients/families that presented language barrier had successfully completed the treatment. In this study, language barrier was not associated with poorer adherence. We believe delivering information written in the mother tongue can improve understanding about the importance of the tuberculosis disease and its treatment.