Health-related quality of life among tuberculosis patients under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme in rural and urban Puducherry.

BACKGROUND: Globally, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the major public health problem. Limited research is carried out on the impact of the disease on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). The study aims to assess the HR-QoL among TB patients during and after Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) therapy and to compare the HR-QoL of these patients with matched neighbourhood controls.

METHODOLOGY: A community-based longitudinal study was conducted in Ariyankuppam and Bahour communes of Puducherry from January 2014 to April 2015. 92 TB patients registered for DOTS therapy during January-June 2014 were interviewed in their DOTS centres during first visit using the SF-36 questionnaire to assess their HR-QoL. During the second visit, 9 TB patients were lost to follow-up; therefore, a total of 83 patients were interviewed in their houses and, simultaneously, 83 matched neighbourhood controls were interviewed. Non-parametric tests were used to compare the HR-QoL scores. p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

RESULTS: The mean HR-QoL scores had improved among TB patients upon completion of DOTS (80.8±20.3), when compared to HR-QoL scores (48.3±30) during treatment with significant difference. The HR-QoL scores of TB patients after DOTS completion (80.8±20.3) had improved to levels comparable to that of non-TB controls (77.5±29.1) without significant difference.

CONCLUSION: HR-QoL of patients suffering from TB was low. However, the study provides evidence that DOTS treatment offers a demonstrable improvement of HR-QoL among TB patients almost to the level of general population. The findings can be used in advocating the effectiveness of DOTS in TB control efforts.