Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND:Patient support during tuberculosis treatment is expected to be more often available and more customized in low tuberculosis incidence, high-resource settings than in lower-resource settings. The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of tuberculosis patient support inter...

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Main Authors: Sarah van de Berg, Niesje Jansen-Aaldring, Gerard de Vries, Susan van den Hof
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6179254?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-9651334b577944a3a578a830e50d759c2020-11-25T00:24:21ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-011310e020543310.1371/journal.pone.0205433Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.Sarah van de BergNiesje Jansen-AaldringGerard de VriesSusan van den HofBACKGROUND:Patient support during tuberculosis treatment is expected to be more often available and more customized in low tuberculosis incidence, high-resource settings than in lower-resource settings. The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of tuberculosis patient support interventions implemented in low-incidence countries and an evaluation of their effects on treatment-related outcomes as well as their acceptability by patients and providers. METHODS:PubMed, Social Science Citation Index and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health and Literature were searched for the period 01.2006-05.2016 on publications describing tuberculosis patient support interventions in low-incidence countries (<20 patients per 100,000 population). RESULTS:Through our search strategy, 1875 unique publications were identified. Forty publications were included: 17 evaluated patient support quantitatively, 9 qualitatively and 14 only described the patient support. Nineteen publications assessed treatment supervision options only, 21 assessed (combinations of) treatment supervision, socio-economic, psycho-emotional, health-educational and other support. Of eight studies quantitatively evaluating the effects of support with a control group, four showed positive effects: two out of three that used combinations of patient support and two out of five that compared treatment supervision options. Heterogeneity of interventions precluded pooling of results. Qualitative and descriptive studies showed that patients appreciated individualized support including treatment supervision, psycho-emotional and socio-economic support; and digital health interventions. CONCLUSION:Our review shows that a variety of patient support interventions is implemented in low-incidence countries. Although only a few interventions were evaluated quantitatively, we identified potential best practices. The scarcity of evidence on effectiveness, however, indicates the need for further research to evaluate potential best practices.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6179254?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Sarah van de Berg
Niesje Jansen-Aaldring
Gerard de Vries
Susan van den Hof
spellingShingle Sarah van de Berg
Niesje Jansen-Aaldring
Gerard de Vries
Susan van den Hof
Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Sarah van de Berg
Niesje Jansen-Aaldring
Gerard de Vries
Susan van den Hof
author_sort Sarah van de Berg
title Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.
title_short Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.
title_full Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.
title_fullStr Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.
title_full_unstemmed Patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: A systematic review.
title_sort patient support for tuberculosis patients in low-incidence countries: a systematic review.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2018-01-01
description BACKGROUND:Patient support during tuberculosis treatment is expected to be more often available and more customized in low tuberculosis incidence, high-resource settings than in lower-resource settings. The aim of this systematic review is to provide an overview of tuberculosis patient support interventions implemented in low-incidence countries and an evaluation of their effects on treatment-related outcomes as well as their acceptability by patients and providers. METHODS:PubMed, Social Science Citation Index and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health and Literature were searched for the period 01.2006-05.2016 on publications describing tuberculosis patient support interventions in low-incidence countries (<20 patients per 100,000 population). RESULTS:Through our search strategy, 1875 unique publications were identified. Forty publications were included: 17 evaluated patient support quantitatively, 9 qualitatively and 14 only described the patient support. Nineteen publications assessed treatment supervision options only, 21 assessed (combinations of) treatment supervision, socio-economic, psycho-emotional, health-educational and other support. Of eight studies quantitatively evaluating the effects of support with a control group, four showed positive effects: two out of three that used combinations of patient support and two out of five that compared treatment supervision options. Heterogeneity of interventions precluded pooling of results. Qualitative and descriptive studies showed that patients appreciated individualized support including treatment supervision, psycho-emotional and socio-economic support; and digital health interventions. CONCLUSION:Our review shows that a variety of patient support interventions is implemented in low-incidence countries. Although only a few interventions were evaluated quantitatively, we identified potential best practices. The scarcity of evidence on effectiveness, however, indicates the need for further research to evaluate potential best practices.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC6179254?pdf=render
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