Adaptação transcultural do instrumento "tool to estimate patient's costs" para estimar os custos do tratamento da tuberculose aos pacientes em municípios prioritários do Brasil

Abstract

Tuberculosis is historically associated with poverty, being a serious public health problem with deep social roots. The disease contributes to the patient's impoverishment and their families, generating costs due to treatment of the disease, which are classified into direct and indirect. This study aims to adapt culturally the Tool to Estimate Patients Costs instrument for the Portuguese of Brazil, used to estimate TB treatment costs for patients in three priority counties in Brazil. Study type Cost of illness by using a sample of 77 patients with closed questionnaire and pre-established by World Health Organization. The instrument showed a Cronbach's alpha above 0.71 in its translated version, and some modifications were necessary to create an instrument adapted to Brazil in a synthesized version, due to questions that do not apply to the reality of the tuberculosis treatment in Brazil. It is recommended to use the synthetic version of the questionnaire as a standard adapted to Brazil, so that this data can be part of the national health statistics according to their particularities in order to minimize the economic impact and the impoverishment caused by the disease to the patients and their families.