Barriers and facilitators for the adoption of digital technologies for tuberculosis medication adherence: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVE

This qualitative systematic review will explore the barriers and facilitators of the use of digital adherence technologies for tuberculosis treatment. The review will focus on the human factors that support the use of these technologies in tuberculosis treatment.

INTRODUCTION

More than 10 million people are infected with tuberculosis every year. Failure to adhere to the treatment regimen is the key reason for the disease's continuing burden worldwide. Numerous efforts have been made to address non-adherence to treatment, including the use of digital adherence technologies. However, recent studies on such technologies show conflicting findings about their effectiveness.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: This review will consider studies reporting on patients and health care workers and the use of digital tools for tuberculosis treatment adherence. The review will include studies that focus on drug-sensitive tuberculosis, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and latent tuberculosis infection, as well as studies on patients with tuberculosis and common comorbidities, such as diabetes or HIV.

METHODS

This review will follow the JBI methodology for qualitative systematic reviews. PubMed, Embase (Ovid), Scopus, and Emcare (Ovid) will be searched for published studies. Searches will also be conducted for gray literature. Two reviewers will independently conduct study selection, critical appraisal, data extraction, and data synthesis. The ConQual approach will be used to assess confidence in the findings of the meta-aggregated data. There will be no date or language limitations.

REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42025645171.