TY - JOUR T1 - Effectiveness of comprehensive social support interventions among elderly patients with tuberculosis in communities in China: a community-based trial JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 369 LP - 375 DO - 10.1136/jech-2017-209458 VL - 72 IS - 5 AU - Xuhui Li AU - Bin Wang AU - Dixin Tan AU - Mengyu Li AU - Dandan Zhang AU - Cong Tang AU - Xiaonan Cai AU - Yaqiong Yan AU - Sheng Zhang AU - Bo Jin AU - Songlin Yu AU - Xunchang Liang AU - Qian Chu AU - Yihua Xu Y1 - 2018/05/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/72/5/369.abstract N2 - Background With the increasing of ageing population, tuberculosis in the elderly brings a challenge for the tuberculosis (TB) control in China. Enough social support can promote the treatment adherence and outcome of the elderly patients with TB. Exploring effective interventions to improve the social support of patients is of great significance for TB management and control.Methods A community-based, repeated measurement trial was conducted. Patients with TB >65 years of age were allocated into the intervention or control group. Patients in the intervention group received comprehensive social support interventions, while those in the control group received health education alone. The social support level of patients was measured at baseline and at the first, third and sixth months during the intervention to assess the effectiveness of comprehensive social support interventions.Results A total of 201 patients were recruited into the study. Compared with the control group, social support for patients in the intervention group increased significantly over time (βgroup*time=0.61, P<0.01) in the following three dimensions: objective support (βgroup*time=0.15, P<0.05), subjective support (βgroup*time=0.32, P<0.05) and support utilisation (βgroup*time=0.16, P<0.05). The change in the scores in the control group was not statistically significant.Conclusions The intervention programme in communities, including health education, psychotherapy and family and community support interventions, can improve the social support for elderly patients with TB compared with single health education.Trial registration number ChiCTR-IOR-16009232 ER -