Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Mar;54(3):499-508.
doi: 10.18502/ijph.v54i3.18243.

Effectiveness and Acceptability of Video-Observed Therapy for Tuberculosis Treatment Monitoring: A Scoping Review

Rahayu Othman  1 , Nazarudin Safian  1 , Mohd Rohaizat Hassan  1
Affiliations
Review

Effectiveness and Acceptability of Video-Observed Therapy for Tuberculosis Treatment Monitoring: A Scoping Review

Rahayu Othman et al. Iran J Public Health. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) control programs confront a significant challenge in ensuring patients fully adhere to their treatment regimens. Video-observed therapy (VOT) is an alternative digital technology for monitoring tuberculosis treatment that may potentially improve adherence and clinical outcomes. However, there is limited evidence supporting the effectiveness and acceptability of VOT. This scoping review aimed to summarize the characteristics of existing evidence-based VOT for tuberculosis treatment monitoring and to describe the evidence for their effectiveness and acceptability.

Methods: This review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping review protocol in Jan 2023. Three databases, namely PubMed, Web of Science, and SCOPUS, were used in this review.

Results: The search identified 170 articles, and after the identification and screening process, 22 articles were included in this review. The findings were categorized into effectiveness and acceptability.

Conclusion: There is a progressively growing body of evidence, particularly in treating and monitoring TB using VOT, which has a positive impact on improving effectiveness regarding health outcomes and is widely accepted to implement. Future studies, such as non-inferiority trials and cost-effectiveness evaluations, will help improve tuberculosis strategies and management.

Keywords: Acceptability; Adherence; Effectiveness; Video-observed therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1:
Search flow diagram for selecting sources of evidence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. World Health Organization (2022). Global Tuberculosis Report 2020. https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/tb-reports
    1. Vernon A, Fielding K, Savic R, et al. (2019). The importance of adherence in tuberculosis treatment clinical trials and its relevance in explanatory and pragmatic trials. PLoS Med, 16(12): e1002884. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization (2015). The End TB Strategy. https://www.who.int/teams/global-tuberculosis-programme/the-end-tb-strategy
    1. Karumbi J, Garner P. (2015). Directly observed therapy for treating tuberculosis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2015(5):CD003343 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Marahatta SB, Yadav RK, Giri D, et al. (2020). Barriers in the access, diagnosis and treatment completion for tuberculosis patients in central and western Nepal: A qualitative study among patients, community members and health care workers. PLoS One, 15(1): e0227293. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources