3 research outputs found
Tuberculosis impacts multiple aspects in quality of life in a Romanian cohort of drugâsusceptible and drug resistant patients: A patientâreported outcome measures study
Background: Tuberculosis (TB), and especially its drug resistant forms, is responsible for not only significant mortality, but also considerable morbidity, still underâquantified. This study used four PatientâReported Outcome Measures (PROMS) to assess the status of persons affected by drugâsusceptible and drugâresistant TB during their TB treatment or after treatment completion, in Romania, the highest TB burden country in the EU.
Methods: People affected by TB in two different regions in Romania were included during and after treatment, following a crossâsectional design. PROMs used were SFâ36, EQâ5Dâ5L, WPAI and the appâbased audiometry screening tool âuHear.â Descriptive statistics and relevant statistical tests were used to compare groups between themselves and with the general Romanian population.
Results: Both patients with drugâsusceptible and drugâresistant TB experience, with drugâresistant patients experiencing statistically significantly more pain and hearing loss. PROMs show some improvement in the afterâtreatment group; however, compared with the general Romanian population for which data were available, all groups scored lower on all outcome measures.
Conclusion: PROMs offer the possibility of obtaining a more comprehensive view of patients' status, by involving them directly in the medical process and could guide a rehabilitation strategy
Illness perception in tuberculosis by implementation of the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire : a TBNET study
How patients relate to the experience of their illness has a direct impact over their behavior. We aimed to assess
illness perception in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) by means of the Brief Illness Perception
Questionnaire (BIPQ) in correlation with patientsâ demographic features and clinical TB score.
Our observational questionnaire based study included series of consecutive TB patients enrolled in several countries
from October 2008 to January 2011 with 167 valid questionnaires analyzed. Each BIPQ item assessed one
dimension of illness perceptions like the consequences, timeline, personal control, treatment control, identity,
coherence, emotional representation and concern. An open question referred to the main causes of TB in each
patientâs opinion.
The over-all BIPQ score (36.25 ± 11.054) was in concordance with the clinical TB score (p †0.001). TB patients
believed in the treatment (the highest item-related score for treatment control) but were unsure about the illness
identity. Illness understanding and the clinical TB score were negatively correlated (p < 0.01). Only 25% of the
participants stated bacteria or TB contact as the first ranked cause of the illness.
For routine clinical practice implementation of the BIPQ is convenient for obtaining fast and easy assessment of
illness perception with potential utility in intervention design. This time saving effective personalized approach may
improve communication with TB patients and contribute to better behavioral strategies in disease control
European shortage of purified protein derivative and its impact on tuberculosis screening practices
Setting: in June 2014, we became aware that shortages of purified protein derivative (PPD), the test substance used for the tuberculin skin test (TST), had occurred in several European health care institutions providing care for children with tuberculosis (TB).Objective: to establish the extent of the shortage, a survey was performed.Design: survey conducted over a 1-month period (JuneâJuly 2014) among members of the Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet).Results: thirty-five physicians from 23 European countries contributed data. The most commonly used PPD product was RT23 (Statens Serum Institut; n = 22, 63%). Twenty-one (60%) participants reported that their institution was experiencing a PPD shortage. The majority (n = 17, 81%) of those reporting a shortage were using RT23. Thirteen (37%) participants reported changes in screening practices resulting from the shortage, including sourcing PPD from alternative manufacturers, restricting remaining supplies to patients at greatest risk or replacing TST by an interferon-gamma release assay.Conclusions: the data show that a PPD shortage occurred in 2014, affecting multiple European countries. The shortage resulted in changes in TB screening capabilities and practices, potentially compromising both patient care as well as public health efforts. Appropriate actions to prevent future PPD shortages should be explored urgently by public health agencies and key stakeholder