PROFILE OF PATIENTS WITH TUBERCULOSIS: ESTABLISHING STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTION, TREATMENT AND CURE

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: It is known that patients abandon treatment against tuberculosis is a major public health problem to be tackled by the agencies responsible for health in Brazil. This study aimed to characterize the epidemiology and risk factors associated with treatment abandonment by patients with tuberculosis. METHOD: A quantitative, descriptive and exploratory study conducted in Fortaleza, with 60 patients with tuberculosis who discontinued treatment before curing. These patients were registered in the SINAN from 2010 to 2015. It analyzed the data based on the current literature on the subject. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There are some risk factors that favor the abandonment of tuberculosis treatment: 69,02% of patients were men, mainly black (88,97%), between 25 and 45 years, and living in the urban area of ​​the metropolis. It was also seen that 47,89% of patients had studied for four to seven years and that many were alcoholics (68,03%), which hurt the treatment, 51% did not report the type of work they performed or if they had some work. It was also observed that 44 patients have been reinfected, requiring further treatment, while 16 had to restart the treatment due to the abandonment. It was possible to verify that the alcoholic patients, black, urban, with low education and low socioeconomic conditions are more likely to abandon treatment, which is confirmed in the literature. It is mainly this population that requires greater investment in preventing disease.