Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health

Volume 7, Issue Supplement 1, March 2018, Pages S29 - S33

Impact of mobile teams on tuberculosis treatment outcomes, Riyadh Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2013–2015

Authors
Sami Alqahtania, *, samithabit@hotmail.com, Abdulhameed Kashkarya, Abdullah Asiria, b, Heba Kamala, Jose Binongob, Kenneth Castrob, Scott McNabbb
aMinistry of Health, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
bRollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
*Corresponding author at: 4989 Almusa Subdivision, Unit #2, Khamis Mushayt 62463-8464, Saudi Arabia.
Corresponding Author
Received 19 June 2017, Revised 10 September 2017, Accepted 22 September 2017, Available Online 28 September 2017.
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.005How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Directly observed therapy; Mobile teams; Saudi Arabia; Tuberculosis
Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the tuberculosis (TB) mobile teams on treatment outcomes in Riyadh Region by comparing patients who received treatment under mobile teams and those who did not, from 2013 to 2015. This was a retrospective descriptive study using National TB Control and Prevention Program data from 2013 to 2015 from Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Descriptive analyses were used to summarize characteristics of TB case-patients served by mobile teams and those who were not served. The χ2 test measured the significant differences between mobile-served and non-mobile-served case-patients. Exposure was whether or not the TB case-patient was under the care of the mobile team; the outcome of interest was whether or not treatment was successful, defined as treatment completed and cured. We found that the ratio of treatment success among mobile team case-patients was 1.28 greater than among those not served by mobile teams. The χ2 test showed a statistically significant finding (probability ratio = 1.28; 95% confidence interval = 1.21–1.35, p < 0.01). Mobile teams increased the treatment success rate to 92%, compared to 71.77% among those not served by mobile teams. This study shows that community mobilization of mobile teams is an effective strategy to enhance TB treatment, reduced mortality and loss to follow-up and improve TB treatment outcomes.

Copyright
© 2017 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue
7 - Supplement 1
Pages
S29 - S33
Publication Date
2017/09/28
ISSN (Online)
2210-6014
ISSN (Print)
2210-6006
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.005How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2017 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Cite this article

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sami Alqahtani
AU  - Abdulhameed Kashkary
AU  - Abdullah Asiri
AU  - Heba Kamal
AU  - Jose Binongo
AU  - Kenneth Castro
AU  - Scott McNabb
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2017/09/28
TI  - Impact of mobile teams on tuberculosis treatment outcomes, Riyadh Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2013–2015
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - S29
EP  - S33
VL  - 7
IS  - Supplement 1
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.005
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2017.09.005
ID  - Alqahtani2017
ER  -