Improving Health Literacy of TB Patients at Bandarharjo Health Center through TB Literacy Book Media (BuLit TB)

Objective and Background: The Bandarharjo Health Center reported in 2019 that the number of cases of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis had increased to four. The current program to increase patient TB literacy is only education delivered by TB officers, and no specific media is used to increase patient TB literacy. The purpose of this study was to create literacy media in the form of TB literacy books (BuLit TB) in order to improve the literacy of TB patients at the Bandarharjo Health Center.

Methods: This study included 50 tuberculosis patients whose literacy levels were assessed both before and after the intervention media was administered. In this study, the information gain method is used to determine the level of importance of a variable based on its target value. In addition, non-parametric tests were used in this study to determine the effect of the intervention on respondents' TB knowledge and Health Literacy levels.

Results: According to the findings of this study, testing using a weighting algorithm reveals that education and age variables are important on the level of TB knowledge, with weights of 0.221 and 0.155, respectively. Furthermore, the education and address variables have a weighted score of 0.205 and 0.198, respectively, on the respondent's health literacy level. Non-parametric statistical tests revealed that BuLit TB media was effective in increasing the literacy of TB patients at the Bandarharjo Health Center.

Conclusion: The BuLit TB media can be used by Health Center officers to help TB patients with literacy and education.