Patient-centered mobile tuberculosis treatment support tools (TB-TSTs) to improve treatment adherence: A pilot randomized controlled trial exploring feasibility, acceptability and refinement needs.

Background: Digital adherence technologies hold promise to improve patient-centered tuberculosis (TB) monitoring, yet few studies have incorporated adherence monitoring or assessed patients' experiences with these technologies. We explored acceptability, feasibility, and refinement needs of the TB Treatment Support Tools (TB-TSTs) intervention linking a mobile app, a urine drug metabolite test, and interactive communication with a treatment supporter.

Methods: This pilot study was a parallel-designed single-center randomized controlled trial with exit interviews. Newly diagnosed TB patients were randomized 1:1 using a treatment allocation button in the REDCap software preloaded with a random allocation sequence to usual care or usual care plus the TB-TSTs intervention from a respiratory medicine hospital in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina and followed for 6-months. Due to the nature of the intervention, blinding to the group allocation could not be achieved for the recruiter or patients. The treatment outcome data extractor was blinded to the group allocation of the participants. Intervention participants used the app to report self-administering medication, potential side effects, submit photos of the urine test, and interact with a treatment supporter. Outcomes were feasibility, acceptability, and treatment outcomes.

Findings: Forty-two patients were enrolled and evenly assigned to each group. Intervention participants submitted 147·2±58 (mean, SD) medication self-administration and 144·5±55 side effect reports out of 180 and 47.5±38·4 photos of the urine test out of 77. Treatment success for usual care was 81% [17/21] and 95% [20/21] for the TB-TSTs intervention. Thirty-three themes were identified within the main categories of motivation, what worked, issues experienced, and recommendations. Participants (n=12) rated it as 'easy to use' (4.57/5), 'would highly recommend to others' (4·43/5) and reported that access to the treatment support was a critical component. Recommendations included adding an alarm, appointment reminders, and off-line functionality.

Interpretation: Findings suggest that the TB-TSTs intervention was feasible and acceptable and further refinement and testing is warranted.

Funding: National Institute of Health K23NR017210.