More effective smartphone app treatment for TB patients: study

London: One study found that TB patients are more likely to adhere to video therapy on a smartphone than face-to-face appointments. Directly observed treatment (DOT) has been the standard of TB treatment since the early 1990s, but it is not practical for patients and service providers.

The video-observation therapy (VOT) on smartphone, recommended by the World Health Organization as an alternative to DOT, is a more effective approach to treating tuberculosis, said the study published in The Lancet.

"YOUR will probably be better for many patients in a wide range of settings, offering a more acceptable, effective and less expensive option for monitoring multiple daily doses than DOT," said Andrew C. Hayward of the University. College London.

The study examined whether treatment compliance levels had been improved with VOT. The team randomly badigned 226 patients – 112 to VOT and 114 to DOT. Seventy-eight of the 112 patients under VOT performed 80% of the observations programmed successfully during the first two months, compared to 35 out of 114 under DOT.

VOT also supported the daily dosage, was effective for socially complex populations, and had a lower abandonment rate than DOT. The absence of face-to-face contact has not reduced the identification of adverse events nor resulted in more unplanned appointments. VOT has reduced staff time requirements, especially compared to DOT at home, the study showed.

"There is a pressing global need for more effective and less costly alternatives to DOT to enable effective outpatient care for drug-susceptible TB and multidrug-resistant TB," said Dr. Hayward.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tuberculosis is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. In 2017, 10 million people around the world contracted tuberculosis. There were 1.3 million TB-related deaths worldwide. It is also one of the leading causes of death among people infected with HIV.