Barriers to Smoking Cessation Among Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Patients in South Africa

Perspectives of Hospital Staff on Barriers to Smoking Cessation Interventions among Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Patients in a South African Management Hospital

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) remains a major cause of illness and death, with personal and non-addiction-related barriers. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of hospital staff on barriers to smoking cessation interventions (SCIs) for in-patients at a DR-TB management hospital in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of eighteen hospital staff (HS), and the data were analyzed using NVivo 10. Three core themes were identified: patients' barriers (addiction to tobacco, relapse after improvement in health, and non-disclosure of smoking status to HS), staff personal barriers (poor knowledge of smoking's effect on treatment outcomes and smoking cessation aids), and institutional barriers (staff shortage, time constraints, lack of pharmacological smoking cessation aids, access to cigarettes around hospital premises, and SCIs not prioritized and not assigned to a specific category of HS). Training on SCIs for HS, assigning SCIs to specific HS, integrating SCIs within existing services, and banning access to cigarettes within the hospital premises are assumed to assist DR-TB patients in smoking cessation, improving their response to TB treatment and overall health outcomes.

Undernutrition and Treatment Success in Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Uganda

Background

Undernutrition is associated with unfavourable treatment outcomes among people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DRTB). Factors influencing the treatment outcomes among undernourished people with DRTB are not well characterised. The aim of this study was to determine factors associated with treatment success among undernourished people with DRTB in Uganda.

Methods

We analysed data from a retrospective cohort of people with DRTB from 16 treatment sites in Uganda. We included participants with a pre-treatment body mass index (BMI) of <18.5 kilograms/meters² (kg/m²). Participants were categorised as having mild (BMI of 18.5–17 kg/m²), moderate (BMI of 16.9–16.0 kg/m²) or severe (BMI of <16.0 kg/m²) undernutrition. We performed logistic regression analysis to determine factors associated with treatment success.

Results

Among 473 people with DRTB, 276 (58.4%) were undernourished (BMI < 18.5 Kg/m²) and were included in the study. Of these, 92 (33.3%) had mild, 69 (25.0%) had moderate and 115 (41.7%) had severe undernutrition. The overall treatment success rate (TSR) for the undernourished was 71.4% (n = 197). Although the TSR was similar among participants with mild (71.7%), moderate (78.3%) and severe (67.0%) undernutrition (p = 0.258), all treatment failure cases (n =6) were among participants with severe undernutrition (p = 0.010). Cigarette smoking (odds ratio (OR) = 0.19, 95% CI 0.07–0.47, p < 0.001), urban residence (OR = 0.31, 95% CI 0.14–0.70, p = 0.005) and moderate (OR = 0.14, 95% CI 0.06–0.35, p < 0.001) and severe anaemia (OR = 0.06, 95% CI 0.01–0.29, p = 0.001) were associated with lower odds of treatment success.

Conclusion

Most undernourished people with DRTB have severe undernutrition. Smoking and anaemia are modifiable factors which upon appropriate intervention could improve treatment success. The effect of urban residence on the TSR needs to be evaluated further.

A narrative review of facilitators and barriers to smoking cessation and tobacco-dependence treatment in patients with tuberculosis in low- and middle-income countries

INTRODUCTION

Smoking is a substantial cause of premature death in patients with tuberculosis (TB), particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with high TB prevalence. The importance of incorporating smoking cessation and tobacco-dependence treatment (TDT) into TB care is highlighted in the most recent TB care guidelines. Our objective is to identify the likely key facilitators of and barriers to smoking cessation for patients with TB in LMICs.

METHODS

A systematic search of studies with English-language abstracts published between January 2000 and May 2019 was undertaken in the EMBASE, MEDLINE, EBSCO, ProQuest, Cochrane and Web of Science databases. Data extraction was followed by study-quality assessment and a descriptive and narrative synthesis of findings.

RESULTS

Out of 267 potentially eligible articles, 36 satisfied the inclusion criteria. Methodological quality of non-randomized studies was variable; low risk of bias was assessed in most randomized controlled studies. Identified facilitators included brief, repeated interventions, personalized behavioural counselling, offer of pharmacotherapy, smoke-free homes and a reasonable awareness of smoking-associated risks. Barriers included craving for a cigarette, low level of education, unemployment, easy access to tobacco in the hospital setting, lack of knowledge about quit strategies, and limited space and privacy at the clinics. Findings show that the risk of smoking relapse could be reduced through consistent follow-up upon completion of TB therapy and receiving a disease-specific smoking cessation message.

CONCLUSIONS

Raising awareness of smoking-related health risks in patients with TB and implementing guideline-recommended standardized TDT within national TB programmes could increase smoking cessation rates in this high-risk population.

A narrative systematic review of tobacco cessation interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa

AIM

In the face of increasing tobacco consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is crucial to not only curb the uptake of tobacco, but to ensure that tobacco users quit. Considering the minimal attention that tobacco cessation interventions receive in Sub-Saharan Africa, this review aims to describe studies that evaluated tobacco cessation interventions in the region.

METHODS

A search of studies published till December 2019 that evaluated tobacco cessation interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa and examined tobacco quit rates was conducted in PubMed-Medline, Web of Science and Scopus. Study designs were not limited to randomised control trials but needed to include a control group.

RESULTS

Of the 454 titles and abstracts reviewed, eight studies, all conducted in South Africa, were included. The earliest publication was from 1988 and the most recent from 2019. Five studies were randomised control trials, two were quasi-experimental and one was a case-control study. Populations studied included community-based smokers (four studies) and university students, while the relevant clinic-based studies were conducted in pregnant women, tuberculosis patients and HIV-infected patients. Sample sizes were 23 in the case-control study, 87-561 in randomised control trials, and 979 (pregnant women) and 4090 (three rural communities) in the quasi-experimental studies. Four studies included nicotine replacement therapy in the interventions while four utilised only psychotherapy without adjunct pharmacotherapy. Quit rates were evaluated by exhaled carbon monoxide levels (five studies), blood carbon monoxide, urinary cotinine levels and self-reported quit rates. Four studies (two each with and without pharmacotherapy) reported significantly better outcomes in the intervention versus the control groups while one study findings (without pharmacotherapy) were significant in women but not men.

CONCLUSION

This review highlights that scant attention has been paid to tobacco cessation intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa. The heterogeneity of these studies precluded comparisons across interventions or populations. There is a need for evidence-based low-cost tobacco cessation intervention that target high-risk population in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Outcomes of a smoking cessation intervention at follow-up after 5 years among tuberculosis patients in China

INTRODUCTION

Smoking cessation should be part of tuberculosis (TB) treatment, but a cessation service is not available as part of a routine TB service in most low- and middle-income countries. WHO and The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) issued a guideline and China implemented a pilot project 5 years ago. This study aimed to determine changes in smoking status among TB patients at 5 years after completion of anti-TB treatment to observe long-term outcome of a smoking cessation project whose baseline characteristics were associated with a relapse of smoking behavior.

METHODS

A prospective longitudinal study was conducted 5 years after completion of anti-TB treatment to assess changes in patient smoking status against individual baseline data that were entered into a database at the time of TB registration. The patients were tracked by trained village doctors and validated by township health staff. Their smoking status was assessed and entered into the database and analysed.

RESULTS

Of the 800 TB patients registered at baseline, 650 (81.2%) were tracked. Ninety-one (11.4%) patients died and 59 (7.4%) were lost to follow-up. The rates of remaining non-smoking after 5 years were 82.0%, 63.0%, 49.6%, 43.5% and 30.0%, respectively for non-smokers, ex-smokers, current smokers who received cessation intervention, recent quitters, and current smokers not on a cessation intervention. The odds of smoking relapse were significantly higher for those aged ≥65 years (p=0.003) and registered in Xingguo County (p=0.025).

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study confirmed that non-smokers, ex-smokers and current smokers who received cessation intervention at baseline maintained higher non-smoking rates compared with those who did not receive the intervention. To prevent relapse, intensive cessation support should be given to TB patients aged ≥65 years. TB programme managers need to ensure integration and provision of smoking cessation advice and smoke-free policy in routine TB services.

Management of drug-resistant tuberculosis

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a major public health concern in many countries. Over the past decade, the number of patients infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to the most effective drugs against tuberculosis (ie, rifampicin and isoniazid), which is called multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, has continued to increase. Globally, 4·6% of patients with tuberculosis have multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, but in some areas, like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Ukraine, this proportion exceeds 25%. Treatment for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is prolonged (ie, 9-24 months) and patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis have less favourable outcomes than those treated for drug-susceptible tuberculosis. Individualised multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment with novel (eg, bedaquiline) and repurposed (eg, linezolid, clofazimine, or meropenem) drugs and guided by genotypic and phenotypic drug susceptibility testing can improve treatment outcomes. Some clinical trials are evaluating 6-month regimens to simplify management and improve outcomes of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. Here we review optimal diagnostic and treatment strategies for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis and their contacts.