Health counseling support medication adherence to reguler pulmonary tuberculosis patients

Background: The rate of tuberculosis treatment success has been relatively low due to high rate of medication drop out which causes drug resistance and medication failure. Health counseling is a need for patients with tuberculosis to help them understand and accept their condition which eventually increase their medication adherence.
Aim: This systematic review aimed to examine the effectiveness of health counseling on the medication adher- ence of patients with regular pulmonary tuberculosis.
Method: Articles analyzed in this research were retrieved from Pubmed, Proquest, Science Direct, Cochrane li- brary and Gray Literature databases, resulting in 7 main articles. These articles refer to PRISMA 2009 by protocol registration number (PROSPERO) CRD42020223341.Articles were analyzed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program and the risks of bias were measured based on the Cochrane Risk of Bias.
Results: From the seven articles reviewed, several models of health counseling were identified, such as psycho- logical counseling and education based on the health belief model (HBM), the family best counseling (FBC) model through patient home visits, and 5 other articles providing structured counseling. Structured counseling is effective on treatment adherence of TB patients with the shortest duration of two weeks to six months of intervention.
Conclusions: Thus, structured health counseling is recommended in the tuberculosis treatment program from the beginning of diagnosis to completion of treatment in regular TB patients with a duration of 30 min every week for 6 months of intervention. Medication adherence was measured using the Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) and using counseling support media such as leaflets.