Strategies to reduce pre-treatment loss to follow-up and improve successful patient outcomes in a TB hotspot

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The direct and indirect costs to individuals and households of accessing care are a critical barrier to TB treatment initiation and completion with poorer households incurring greater costs. While the associations between poverty and TB infection, TB disease and TB treatment outcomes are well documented there have been very few studies of economic interventions to improve TB outcomes. Other important barriers to successful TB treatment include health system weaknesses and unproductive patient-provider interactions resulting in limited patient motivation and understanding. In this study we will explore the effects of two interventions: 1) counselling patients before and after a TB test is performed and 2) giving patients limited financial support on the rates of TB treatment initiation and completion.