PREDICTOR FACTORS TO POOR ADHERENCE TO ANTI-TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT

<b>Background:</b> Tuberculosis (TB) is a global public health problem. It is most of the time curable if patients are treated with uninterrupted anti-tuberculosis therapy. Incomplete adherence to treatment may lead to a prolonged disease infectiousness, drug resistance, relapse and death. <b>Aim:</b> Assess the prevalence of poor adherence to anti-tuberculosis treatment, its determinants and consequences. <b>Methods:</b> Retrospective study including patients with TB followed pulmonology department C Mami hospital in Tunisia from 2010 to 2019. Non-adherence was defined by an interruption of treatment for 15 days or the intake of 80% of the total drug dose. The population was divided to two groups. G1:non adherent patients and G2:adherent patients. <b>Results:</b> Four hundred sixty patients were included (mean age 40±5.5, 61.3% were men). Fifty-seven (12.8%) patients were non-adherent to their treatment (G1). The G1 patients were older (42,35+/-13,56 years vs 39,62+/-16,70;p=0.08) and had lower institution level 25% (p&gt;0.05). There was no significant difference in adherence between patients receiving combined and dissociated treatment. Poor compliance with treatment was correlated to the socio-economic and low school level,&nbsp;tobacco (p&lt;0.05), comorbidities (p=0.055) and&nbsp;poor tolerance of TB treatment. <b>Conclusion:</b> A poor tolerance of anti-tuberculosis drugs is an important factor of poor compliance and can therefore impact on therapeutic success.