Background

In many countries, private general practitioners are the first contact in health services for people with symptoms of tuberculosis. Targeting the private sector has been recommended in previous studies to improve tuberculosis control. A brief face-to-face intervention using Catharsis Education Action (CEA) method, repeated at periodic intervals, seems to change physicians' attitudes, beliefs and practice.

The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of CEA method in improving the private general practitioners' (PPs) adherence to the national guideline on the management of tuberculosis patients in Bandung District, Indonesia.

Method

A randomized controlled trial was done. For the intervention group, a session of the CEA method was delivered to PPs while brief reminder with provision of pamphlet was used for the comparative group.

Results

A total of 82 PPs were included in the analysis. The intervention group showed some positive trends in adherence especially in the use of sputum as first laboratory examination (RR = 1.24) and follow up (RR = 1.37), though not reaching statistical significance. After intervention PPs in CEA group maintained the adherence, but PPs in pamphlets group showed deterioration (score before to after: -12.5).

Conclusion

Face to face education using CEA method seems to be as effective as brief reminder with provision of pamphlet in improving the adherence. CEA offers additional information that can be useful in designing intervention programs to improve the adherence to guideline.