Food incentives and completion of tuberculosis treatment

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4037

Published 26 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4037
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4037

Editorials

Food incentives and completion of tuberculosis treatment

A free lunch—not to be missed, but not effective as anincentive to complete treatment

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the linked randomised controlled trial (doi:10.1136/bmj.b4248),Martins and colleagues assess the effectiveness of a food incentiveto enhance completion of treatment for tuberculosis in Timor-Leste.The meal, or "feijuada," was provided at health centres andcomprised meat, beans, and vegetables with rice.¹ It seems unlikelythat anyone could describe the free lunch as anything but beneficial.Or could they? We need to know if the intervention is effectivein achieving its desired purpose and what the opportunity costsmay be before deciding if it is beneficial.

Although the success of treatment depends on treatment adherence,many patients do not follow their prescriptions and treatmentrecommendations.² In the case of chronic communicable diseasessuch as tuberculosis and HIV infection, maximising adherenceis crucial to optimising the outcomes of treatment not onlyfor the individual but also for the community, through decreasedtransmission and risk of generation of drug . . . [Full text of this article]

Dermot Maher, senior clinical epidemiologist

¹ Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute (MRC/UVRI) Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, PO Box 49 Entebbe, Uganda

dermot.maher@mrcuganda.org

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Food incentives to improve completion of tuberculosis treatment: randomised controlled trial in Dili, Timor-Leste: Nelson Martins, Peter Morris, and Paul M Kelly
BMJ 2009 339: b4248. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]