59 3 Epidemiology and control of DM-TB Comorbidity Study data entered into REDCap (39) will be extracted in Stata format and imported into Stata 15 (Stata Corp., College Station, TX) for analysis. The software NVivo (40) will be used for the analysis of transcribed information from healthcare workers' interviews. Patient and Public Involvement Patients and members of the public were not involved in the study design and the development of this protocol. However, TB program priorities were considered in the design of the study and protocol. Patients during their routine visits will be informed if their blood glucose measurement is within the normal values. Those with abnormal values will be referred for further review and care. Participating health facilities, healthcare workers, the TB program and relevant stakeholders will be provided with feedback on the outcome of the study with direct recommendations on how to improve access to TB services and integrate non-communicable disease care into TB services. Ethics and Dissemination Ethical Considerations Approval for the study has been obtained from the Eswatini Health and Human Research Review Board (EHHRRB) (Protocol Reference Number: EHHRRB036/2021). Participation in the study will be optional. Patients and healthcare workers who will be interviewed will be oriented and provided with a study information sheet (Supplementary files 6 and 7). They will be required to provide informed consent before participating (Supplementary files 6 and 7) and healthcare workers' consent will include consent for the recording of their comments. Researchers administering the interviews will be required to attest they read out the information sheet to the study participants and answered all questions to their satisfaction before commencing the interview. Data will be de-identified to ensure confidentiality. Each patient record and healthcare worker interviewed will be assigned a unique identification code. This code will assist with retrieving information in case there is missing data during analysis or a follow-up question. Identifiable information will only be available to the Principal Investigator (PI) and the de-identified data will be accessible to the study team for monitoring of data quality. All project data will be stored in a password-protected hard drive to ensure data safety. Transcription will be done without linking names to comments to ensure confidentiality. Healthcare workers will be free to stop participating in the interview at any time without providing a reason. The risks to study participants are minimal and measures have been instituted to ensure the confidentiality and safety of data and information
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw