Sociopsychological aspects of treatment of patients with tuberculosis at the inpatient stage

Objective — to study the awareness of inpatients with tuberculosis in the diagnosis of disease, treatment, prevention and peculiarities of the psychological state of patients and their relationships with medical staff at this stage of treatment.Materials and methods. The authors conducted an anonymous survey of two groups of patients with tuberculosis who were hospitalized. The first group consisted of patients with firstly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis, and 28 (93.3 %) persons agreed to the questioning. The second group included patients with multidrug­resistant pulmonary tuberculosis, and 13 (54.2 %) people agreed to the questioning. The questions concerned the determination of the level of knowledge of patients with tuberculosis, the relationship of patients with medical staff and the psychological status of patients.Results and discussion. In the vast majority patients believe, that the duration of treatment coincides with the length of stay in hospital. Patients note insufficient knowledges about the period during which the patient is a danger to others. Instead, 64.3 % of patients in group I and 69.2 % of group II agree with the statement that tuberculosis is curable. In addition, 89.3 % of group I respondents and 53.8 % of group II are aware of the ways of tuberculosis transmission.Among patients of groups I and II, 21.4 and 30.8 % of patients respectively, stated that there was insufficient amount of time to communicate with a doctor, which can be explained by the high risk of transmission of tuberculosis from patients.It was determined that 46.4 % of patients with sensitive tuberculosis and 61.5 % of multidrug­resistant tuberculosis were in a state of depression of varying severity.Conclusions. Awareness of tuberculosis patients remains low. It is necessary to consider the possibility of group sessions for tuberculosis patients, including persons ill with tuberculosis. It is advisable to strengthen the use of additional media (posters, booklets, brochures, videos, etc.). The issue of providing professional psychological support to patients during the inpatient phase of treatment should be raised. It is necessary to improve the work of health professionals in providing information to patients for possible additional social and psychological services that can be obtained as needed.