prevalence and factors affecting non-compliance to tuberculosis treatment among south sudan refugees in west nile region, uganda

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Prevalence and Factors affecting Non-Compliance to Tuberculosis Treatment among South Sudan Refugees in West Nile Region, Uganda Introduction: The west Nile region of Uganda is a high TB burden region with over 759,068 refugees from nearby South Sudan. The region is known to have poor TB treatment outcomes below national targets. Failure to comply with TB treatment is a common phenomenon among refugees who face additional socio-economic barriers to health care. This study aimed at identifying prevalence and factors affecting TB treatment noncompliance among refugees in west Nile. Method: A cross sectional study involving quantitative methods was used to conduct the study. This study enrolled 427 participants and collect data on participant demographics, health system factors and patient related factors using a structured questionnaire. Data was coded and entered using Microsoft access 2010 computer software and exported to Stata Version 14.0 SE for analysis. Univariate analysis was done to compute means, frequencies and percentages. Bivariate analysis was done using binary logistic regression and results interpreted in terms of odds ratios at 95% level of confidence and 0.05 significance level. Factors that were statistically associated with noncompliance to TB treatment at bivariate level were included in a multivariate logistic regression model. Results: About 40.75 % of patients were noncompliant to TB treatment with comparable proportions of noncompliance among women (41.8%) and 40.1% for men. Non-complaint was slightly higher among people <20 years (48.1%) and among the widowed/separated (48.8%). Other tribe (AOR: 0.43; 95%CI: 0.18-1.00, p=0.050), having a Health work at facility as a drug supervisor (AOR= 0.54; 95CI: 0.30-0.98, p=0.041), rating of facility staff as very good (AOR=3.07; 95CI: 0.93-10.07, p=0.054), and good (AOR=3.72; 95CI: 1.14-12.13, p=0.030) were significant factors for treatment noncompliance. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that, noncompliance is still a threat to TB Treatment among refugees and that having patient support systems when one is on TB treatment is protective against treatment noncompliance in a refugee setting.