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Care Seeking Behavior of the TB Patients who were Registered in an Urban Government Tuberculosis Control in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
990-993
Correspondence
Dr. Ramya Ananthakrishnan,
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine,
Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, No. 7, Works Road,
Chrompet, Chennai 600044. India.
Phone-9840055975
Tel: 91 (44) 22418808, Fax: 91 (44) 22416676
E-mail: ramyardr@gmail.com
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health challenge for various reasons, with the patient delay in the diagnosis of TB being one of the important hurdles in the TB control.
Aims: The present study was undertaken among TB patients to (a) determine the number of days that the patients delayed in seeking care (b) find out the different types of health facilities that they visited prior to their diagnosis (c) examine the association of certain socio-demographic variables with the patient delay and (d) to capture the patient’s reaction to the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
Settings and Design: This was a cross sectional study which was conducted among patients who were registered under the Revised National TB control program (RNTCP) in all the Tuberculosis Units (TUs) of Chennai Corporation, an urban metropolitan city in south India.
Methods and Material: A pre-tested, semi-quantitative questionnaire was administered to the TB patients who came for Direct Observed Treatment to all the TUs.
Results: of the 300 patients, 30.6% patients were diagnosed at their first point of contact with the health facility and 75.6% of the patients had been diagnosed on their second visit. The mean patient delay in this study was 18.3 days, which was less as compared to that in other studies. Patients with extra-pulmonary TB had more mean patient delay (55.7) as compared to the patients with pulmonary TB.
Conclusion: This study which has shown a reduced patient delay could probably reflect the efforts of the RNTCP in partnering with different stakeholders in creating both awareness about the disease and appropriate referral to health facility. This study has also highlighted the need for an active and ongoing IEC (information, education and communication) campaign, with special focus on an early diagnosis. Building partnerships with the private health sector for reducing the delays in the diagnosis of TB would also be very important.