Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study

Background: A major challenge for prospective, clinical tuberculosis (TB) research is accurately defining a metric for measuring medication adherence. Objective: We aimed to design a method to capture directly observed therapy (DOT) via mobile health carried out by community workers. The program was...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ragan, E.J., Gill, C.J., Banos, M., Bouton, T.C., Rooney, J., Horsburgh, C.R., Warren, R.M., Myers-Franchi, Bronwyn, Jacobson, K.R.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86126
_version_ 1848764785299030016
author Ragan, E.J.
Gill, C.J.
Banos, M.
Bouton, T.C.
Rooney, J.
Horsburgh, C.R.
Warren, R.M.
Myers-Franchi, Bronwyn
Jacobson, K.R.
author_facet Ragan, E.J.
Gill, C.J.
Banos, M.
Bouton, T.C.
Rooney, J.
Horsburgh, C.R.
Warren, R.M.
Myers-Franchi, Bronwyn
Jacobson, K.R.
author_sort Ragan, E.J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: A major challenge for prospective, clinical tuberculosis (TB) research is accurately defining a metric for measuring medication adherence. Objective: We aimed to design a method to capture directly observed therapy (DOT) via mobile health carried out by community workers. The program was created specifically to measure TB medication adherence for a prospective TB cohort in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Methods: Community workers collect daily adherence data on mobile smartphones. Participant-level adherence, program-level adherence, and program function are systematically monitored to assess DOT program implementation. A data dashboard allows for regular visualization of indicators. Numerous design elements aim to prevent or limit data falsification and ensure study data integrity. Results: The cohort study is ongoing and data collection is in progress. Enrollment began on May 16, 2017, and as of January 12, 2021, a total of 236 participants were enrolled. Adherence data will be used to analyze the study’s primary aims and to investigate adherence as a primary outcome. Conclusions: The DOT program includes a mobile health application for data collection as well as a monitoring framework and dashboard. This approach has potential to be adapted for other settings to improve the capture of medication adherence in clinical TB research.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:24:52Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-86126
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language eng
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:24:52Z
publishDate 2021
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-861262021-11-03T04:17:26Z Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study Ragan, E.J. Gill, C.J. Banos, M. Bouton, T.C. Rooney, J. Horsburgh, C.R. Warren, R.M. Myers-Franchi, Bronwyn Jacobson, K.R. directly observed therapy medication adherence mobile applications treatment adherence and compliance tuberculosis Background: A major challenge for prospective, clinical tuberculosis (TB) research is accurately defining a metric for measuring medication adherence. Objective: We aimed to design a method to capture directly observed therapy (DOT) via mobile health carried out by community workers. The program was created specifically to measure TB medication adherence for a prospective TB cohort in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Methods: Community workers collect daily adherence data on mobile smartphones. Participant-level adherence, program-level adherence, and program function are systematically monitored to assess DOT program implementation. A data dashboard allows for regular visualization of indicators. Numerous design elements aim to prevent or limit data falsification and ensure study data integrity. Results: The cohort study is ongoing and data collection is in progress. Enrollment began on May 16, 2017, and as of January 12, 2021, a total of 236 participants were enrolled. Adherence data will be used to analyze the study’s primary aims and to investigate adherence as a primary outcome. Conclusions: The DOT program includes a mobile health application for data collection as well as a monitoring framework and dashboard. This approach has potential to be adapted for other settings to improve the capture of medication adherence in clinical TB research. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86126 10.2196/24510 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle directly observed therapy
medication adherence
mobile applications
treatment adherence and compliance
tuberculosis
Ragan, E.J.
Gill, C.J.
Banos, M.
Bouton, T.C.
Rooney, J.
Horsburgh, C.R.
Warren, R.M.
Myers-Franchi, Bronwyn
Jacobson, K.R.
Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study
title Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study
title_full Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study
title_fullStr Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study
title_full_unstemmed Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study
title_short Directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: Protocol for a prospective cohort study
title_sort directly observed therapy to measure adherence to tuberculosis medication in observational research: protocol for a prospective cohort study
topic directly observed therapy
medication adherence
mobile applications
treatment adherence and compliance
tuberculosis
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/86126