TUBERCULOSIS IN THE COMMUNITY .1. EVALUATION OF A VOLUNTEER HEALTH WORKER PROGRAM TO ENHANCE ADHERENCE TO ANTITUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT

Setting: A voluntary health worker project (Operation Elsies River) wa s started in a high incidence tuberculosis (TB) area in the Western Ca pe of South Africa, in order to assist the local TB Control programme with case-holding. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of this gr oup of volunteers in enhancing adherence of notified TB patients to tu berculosis treatment. Design: A cohort study was conducted with 351 TB patients (203 children and 148 adults). Results: The data from the ch ild and the adult groups were analysed separately, The child group was more adherent to TB treatment than adults, The supervision option wit h staff dedicated to the treatment of TB, such as the clinic and the S ANTA creche, achieved better adherence results for pre-school children , The supervision modalities for adults did not differ in their adhere nce performance even following adjustment for confounders. Conclusion: The supervision option provided by the volunteers did not significant ly improve the adherence of adult patients to antituberculosis treatme nt.