Patients with TB may have better medication adherence with video-observed therapy than with traditional direct observation, a systematic review and meta-analysis suggest.

Writing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, US researchers examined data from nine studies including 2400 patients with TB, of whom 45% received video-observed therapy during treatment.

Overall, individuals who were observed remotely were nearly three times more likely to be adherent to their medication — defined as taking at least 80% of prescribed doses — than their counterparts under direct observation by a healthcare worker, the authors wrote.

Furthermore, video-observed therapy was also associated with a significantly higher average number of doses taken.