Tuberculosis treatment adherence in the era of COVID-19

BMC Infectious Diseases

Table 2 Tuberculosis Treatment Adherence Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

	Overall	Pre-COVID	COVID	p
vDOT utilization, n (%)	30/52 (58%)	12/28 (43%)	18/24 (75%)	0.019
Overall adherence (irrespective of modality), median (IQR)	66% (57–84%)	65% (57–83%)	68% (57–84%)	0.959
Adherence by modality, median (IQR)
vDOT adherence¹	86% (70–98%)	98% (78–99%)	80% (60–93%)	0.022
DOT adherence¹	59% (55–64%)	58% (53–61%)	62% (55–66%)	0.759
Missed doses by modality, median (IQR)
vDOT missed²	5% (0–16%)	2% (0–17%)	8% (0–16%)	0.555
DOT missed²	1% (0–5%)	2% (0–7%)	0% (0–2%)	0.276
Self-administered doses by modality, median (IQR)
vDOT self-administered³	1% (0–7%)	0 (0–0%)	6% (1–16%)	0.026
DOT self-administered³	38% (35–44%)	38% (35–44%)	37% (33–44%)	0.941

1. Adherence was significantly higher when comparing vDOT to DOT overall (p < 0.001), during the pre-COVID period (p < 0.001), and during the COVID period (p = 0.012)
2. Missed doses were significantly higher when comparing vDOT to DOT overall (p = 0.008) and during the COVID period (p = 0.006). Missed doses were similar when comparing vDOT to DOT in the pre-COVID period (p = 0.321)
3. Self-administered doses were significantly lower when comparing vDOT to DOT overall (p < 0.001), during the pre-COVID period (p < 0.001), and during the COVID period (p < 0.001)

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