Level of Non-Adherence to Tuberculosis Treatment among TB Patients in Selected Chest Clinics in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the levels of non- adherence to tuberculosis treatment among TB patients in selected chest clinics in Mombasa County, Kenya.
 Methodology: The research adopted correlational design. The study was conducted in selected three chest clinics in Mombasa County. All tuberculosis patients diagnosed with active tuberculosis disease who are registered and collect their medicines from selected chest clinics in Mombasa County was the targeted population. Convenience sampling and simple random sampling was used. The sample size involved 200 TB patients. The research adopted questionnaire which consisted of both open ended and closed ended questions. The study adopted a questionnaire in collection of data. The questionnaire contained both open ended and close ended questionnaire. The researcher used descriptive statistics to help in organizing of data and it would also be helpful in summarizing of data for ease of making interpretations. Statistical Package for Social Science version 25 aided in data analysis. Frequency, percentages and moment was used in data analysis.
 Findings: Data analysis from this study that was summed and transformed into categories revealed 83% of the respondent’s experienced moderate non-adherence, 12.2% low non-adherence while 4.8% had high incidences of non-adherence.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Rational Emotive Theory may be used to anchor future studies relating to levels of non-adherence to TB treatment among TB patients. In this study, anxiety over the Tb diagnosis would be the activating agent, patient belief about treatment and treatment course and Non-adherence the consequence of the irrational belief. The study recommended that there is need for patients to be empowered with information on the importance of adherence to TB treatment to mitigate incidences of treatment failure and multidrug resistant tuberculosis through health education using health practitioners.