Tuberculosis defaulters from the "dots" regimen in Jimma zone, southwest Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients with tuberculosis on the DOTS regimen in the four teaching health centers of Jimma zone to determine rate of defaulting and factors associated with it. All tuberculosis patients registered and treated using DOTS regimen in the 4 teaching health centers (THC's) from the second half of 1999 to December 30, 2000 were included in the study. A sub-sample of one hundred and fourteen 114 (56.2%) defaulters were traced at their homes and interviewed to elicit their reasons for defaulting. The study showed that overall rate of defaulting was 6.7%. The default rate from the DOTS regimen was found to be quite low when compared to the rate of defaulting from the standard regimen in Jimma zone. Socio-economic factors including distance of patients' residence from the health institution, lack of money for paying transportation and poor awareness about the disease were the major reasons contributing to poor compliance and defaulting. Designing community based strategies for DOTS regimen in order to make the drug available within the vicinity of the grass root community and strong information education and communication activities need to be employed in order to reduce the defaulter rate and improve the quality of treatment of tuberculosis cases by the DOTS regimen.