[Impact of patient-centered care services on the treatment compliance among patients with multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis].

Objective: To examine the effect of patient-centered care services on compliance to treatment among patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) or rifampicin-resistant (RR) pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB), so as to provide the scientific evidence for promoting the widespread application of the appropriate nursing process of MDR/RR-PTB patients in the hospital.

Methods: The MDR/RR-PTB patients that were definitely diagnosed at the Sixth People's Hospital of Nantong City during the period from January 2017 to October 2020 were enrolled. The patients with confirmed diagnosis of MDR/RR-PTB during the period January 2017 to December 2018 served as controls, who were given routine care in the hospital, and those with confirmed diagnosis of MDR/RR-PTB during the period January 2019 to October 2020 served as the care group, who were given patient-centered personalized care services, including one-to-one consultations, periodic group activities, informatization case management, and personal reminder for return visits. The proportion of inclusion into treatment, loss to follow-up, return visits and sputum examinations were compared between the care and control groups.

Results: A total of 104 MDR/RR-PTB patients were included, including 54 cases in the control group and 50 cases in the care group. There was no significant difference in gender and age distribution between the two groups (χ = 3.013, 1.336, > 0.05). The proportion of inclusion into treatment was higher in the care group (100.00%, 50/50) than in the control group (87.04%, 47/54) ( = 0.013), and the proportion of loss to follow-up was lower in the care group (0, 0/43) than in the control group (19.05%, 8/42) ( = 0.002). In addition, the overall proportion of return visits was higher in the care group (93.09%, 377/405) than in the control group (83.56%, 371/444) (χ = 18.345, < 0.001), and the proportion of sputum examinations was higher in the care group was (83.70%, 339/405) than in the control group (79.28%, 352/444) (χ = 2.737, = 0.098).

Conclusions: Patient-centered care services facilitate the improvements in the proportion of inclusion into treatment and compliance to treatment and reduction in the proportion of loss to follow-up among MDR/RR-PTB patients, which deserves widespread applications.