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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Rita L. Ailinger, PhD, RN¹, Natalie Lima-Garcia, BSN¹, and Nga Nguyen, MPH². (1) College of Nursing and Health Science, George Mason University, MSN: 3 C4, Fairfax, VA 22182, 7037595754, railinge@gmu.edu, (2) Communicable Disease Bureau, Arlington County Public Health Division, 800 S. Walter Reed Dr., Arlington, VA 22204

Adherence to Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) therapy has been a public health problem for many years. The Healthy People 2010 objective 14-13 is to increase adherence from a baseline of 62% in 1997 to 85% by the year 2010. Among Latino immigrants adherence has recently been reported at 72%. In order to assess the reliability of client self-report of adherence, the Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) was used in a cultural intervention study with Latino immigrants. Clients were given their INH in a bottle with the MEMS cap at the first visit. The MEMS cap had a computer chip in it that recorded the specific date and time that the cap was removed from the bottle. On each subsequent clinic visit, the cap was placed on a MEMS reader to determine the exact chronology of when the bottle was opened. In addition to the MEMS data, the number of pills left in the bottle was documented by the public health nurse from the client's self-report. After the nine months of therapy, the self-report as documented in the medical record was compared with the MEMS data. The paper describes strategies for using the MEMS and implications for public health nurses in assessing adherence.

Learning Objectives: