Impact of nursing interventions on adherence to treatment with antituberculosis drugs in children and young people: A nonrandomized controlled trial.

Aim: To evaluate the association of a new nursing intervention on the adherence to antituberculosis treatment in a paediatric cohort (<18 years).

Background: Tuberculosis remains a public health problem worldwide. The risk of developing tuberculosis after primary infection and its severity are higher in children. Proper adherence to antituberculosis treatment is critical for disease control.

Design: Nonrandomized controlled trial; Phase 1, retrospective (2011-2013), compared with Phase 2, prospective with intervention (2015-2016), in a referral centre for paediatric tuberculosis in Spain (NCT03230409).

Methods: A total of 359 patients who received antituberculosis drugs after close contact with a smear-positive patient (primary chemoprophylaxis) or were treated for latent tuberculosis infection or tuberculosis disease were included, 261 in Phase 1 and 98 in Phase 2. In Phase 2, a new nurse-led intervention was implemented in all patients and included two educational steps (written information in the child's native language and follow-up telephone calls) and two monitoring steps (Eidus-Hamilton test and follow-up questionnaire) that were exclusively carried out by nurses.

Results: Adherence to antituberculosis treatment increased from 74.7% in Phase 1% to 87.8% in Phase 2 (p = 0.014; Chi-square test), after the implementation of the nurse-led intervention. In Phase 2, nonadherence was only associated with being born abroad (28.6% vs. 7.8%; p = 0.019; Chi-square test) and with foreign origin families (27.3% vs. 0%; p < 0.0001; Chi-square test).

Conclusion: The nurse-led intervention was associated to an increase in adherence to antituberculosis treatment. Immigrant-related variables remained major risk factors for sub-optimal adherence in a low-endemic setting.