BackgroundWith the increasing of ageing population, tuberculosis in the elderly brings a challenge for the tuberculosis (TB) control in China. Enough social support can promote the treatment adherence and outcome of the elderly patients with TB. Exploring effective interventions to improve the social support of patients is of great significance for TB management and control.MethodsA community-based, repeated measurement trial was conducted. Patients with TB >65 years of age were allocated into the intervention or control group. Patients in the intervention group received comprehensive social support interventions, while those in the control group received health education alone. The social support level of patients was measured at baseline and at the first, third and sixth months during the intervention to assess the effectiveness of comprehensive social support interventions.ResultsA total of 201 patients were recruited into the study. Compared with the control group, social support for patients in the intervention group increased significantly over time (βgroup*time=0.61, P<0.01) in the following three dimensions: objective support (βgroup*time=0.15, P<0.05), subjective support (βgroup*time=0.32, P<0.05) and support utilisation (βgroup*time=0.16, P<0.05). The change in the scores in the control group was not statistically significant.ConclusionsThe intervention programme in communities, including health education, psychotherapy and family and community support interventions, can improve the social support for elderly patients with TB compared with single health education.Trial registration numberChiCTR-IOR-16009232

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Objectives: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has become a One Health problem in which fluoroquinolone resistance has caused great concern. The aim of this study is to estimate factors related to fluoroquinolone resistance involving the professionals and antimicrobial consumption (AMC) in human and animal fields.Methods: A country-level panel data set in Europe from 2005 to 2016 was constructed. The dependent variables were measured by Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Pseudomonasaeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) resistance rates to fluoroquinolones. Both the static and dynamic panel data models were employed to estimate the above factors associated with the resistance rates.Results: The 10% increase in the number of medical staff and veterinary professionals per 100,000 population were significantly correlated with the 32.44% decrease of P. aeruginosa and 0.57% decrease of E. coli resistance rates to fluoroquinolones (Coef. = −3.244, −0.057; p = 0.000, 0.030, respectively). The 10% increase in the human AMC was correlated with 10.06% and 8.04% increase of P. aeruginosa resistance rates to fluoroquinolones in static and dynamic models (Coef. = 1.006, 0.804; p = 0.006, 0.001, respectively). The 10% increase in veterinary AMC was related to a 1.65% decrease of P. aeruginosa resistance rates to fluoroquinolones (Coef. = −0.165, p = 0.019).Conclusions: The increases in medical and veterinary professionals are respectively associated with the decrease of P. aeruginosa and E. coli resistance rates to fluoroquinolones. The increase in human AMC is also associated with increase of P. aeruginosa resistance rates, while the increase in veterinary AMC was found to be associated with a decrease in resistance rate for P. aeruginosa.

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