Araya Chattanapanich. Factors related to caregivers' help with medication adherence of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment . Master's Degree(Community Health Nursing). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2005.
Factors related to caregivers' help with medication adherence of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment
Abstract:
The purposes of this study were to describe caregivers of patients receiving
tuberculosis treatment in terms of background characteristics (age, gender, marital status,
education, occupation, income, caregiving duration, number of social roles, and closeness
of patient-caregiver relationship), knowledge about tuberculosis, perception about
tuberculosis, social support and caregivers’ help with medication adherence of patients
receiving tuberculosis treatment, as well as to examine factors related to caregivers’ help
with medication adherence of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment. Subjects were 101
caregivers of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment who came for a follow up visit at the
tuberculosis clinic of the Chest Disease Institute. Questionnaires were used to collect data.
The subjects’ age ranged from 16 to 81 years old with a mean of 40.9 years old. The
majority of them were female (77.2%). More than a half of them finished elementary
school (53.6%). The majority of them were employed (84.1%). Only about 33.6% of them
had adequate income. Their average caregiving duration was about 7 months. Nearly a half
of the subjects had three social roles (45.5%). About half were a spouse of the patients
(50.5%). Almost all reported a very close-patient-caregiver relationship (82.0%). The
subjects helped their patients with medication adherence by preparing medication for the
patients (57.4%), reminding patients when to take medicine (99.0%), and accompanying
the patients to clinics (100%). Closeness of patient-caregiver relationship, knowledge
about side effects and management, overall knowledge about tuberculosis, and emotional
support demonstrated a positive significant relationship to caregivers’ help with
medication adherence. While, having an occupation demonstrated a negative significant
relationship to help with medication adherence of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment.
These findings can be useful for health care providers to use as a guideline to implement
interventions for the caregivers of patients receiving tuberculosis treatment in order to increase
knowledge and their influence in enhancing medication adherence among the patients so that they
complete tuberculosis treatment