Health Seeking Behaviour and Associated Factors among Pulmonary Tuberculosis Suspects in Lay Armachiho District, Northwest Ethiopia: A Community-Based Study.

Eshetu Haileselassie Engeda,Tesfaye Demeke Ashenafie,Mengistu Mekonnen Kelkay,Berihun Assefa Dachew,Hiwot Kassa Woreta

doi:10.1155/2016/7892701

Eshetu Haileselassie Engeda, Tesfaye Demeke Ashenafie + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/7892701

Copy DOI

Journal: Tuberculosis Research and Treatment	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
Citations: 37	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Gondar

Abstract

Studies in the northern part of Ethiopia showed high prevalence of undiagnosed cluster of tuberculosis cases within the community which demanded an investigation of the health care seeking behaviour of tuberculosis suspects. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Lay Armachiho district, Northwest Ethiopia. Individuals who had cough for at least two weeks and aged greater than or equal to 15 years were included in the study. Data were collected by interview using pretested and structured questionnaire. Logistic regression was computed and adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was calculated. Out of the total population surveyed (29, 735), 663 (2.2%) individuals were found to be pulmonary tuberculosis suspects. Majority of the suspects reported that they had visited a modern health care facility. Those aged 15 to 34 and aged 35–54 had secondary educational level and above; those who were civil servants, those who were farmers, those who had previous history of tuberculosis treatment, and those who perceived that they were sick were more likely to visit a modern health care facility. The proportion of respondents who had taken traditional measures was found to be higher than some other districts. Improving the socioeconomic status of the community is recommended.

Highlights

According to the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) global tuberculosis (TB) report, TB remains a major global health problem that killed 1.5 million people in 2014 alone
In developing countries like Ethiopia where TB case detection rate is below the WHO set value and majority of the population live in rural areas in which TB diagnostic facilities are not fulfilled, understanding the health care seeking behaviour of PTBC suspects could be very crucial in order to design appropriate behaviour modification mechanisms
In this study 39.1% of PTBC suspects had not visited modern health care facilities during the study period. This might imply that the respondents either did not consider their symptoms as a serious health problem or they had used other traditional methods to alleviate their symptoms. This finding is lower than a West Gojjam (Northwest Ethiopia) study [9], it is higher than a study done in Dabat district (Northwest Ethiopia) [19] in which the proportions of PTBC suspects who had not visited modern health care facility were 40% and 20%, respectively

Summary

Introduction

According to the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) global tuberculosis (TB) report, TB remains a major global health problem that killed 1.5 million people in 2014 alone. This report showed that an estimated number of 9.6 million new tuberculosis cases are diagnosed in the same year [1]. Evidences showed that over 81% of TB related morbidity and mortality occurred in developing countries [2] This enormous burden of TB was mainly because of high prevalence of human immune deficiency virus infection [3], emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR) TB, social inequalities, ineffective TB control efforts, and low TB case detection rates [2, 4]. A TB trend analysis study indicated that the incidence rate of TB in Ethiopia was increasing at a rate of 5 new TB cases per 100,000 population per year [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion