Health-Seeking behaviour of TB patients and related factors in the Central Region of Ghana

Abstract

Background: The health seeking behaviour of TB patients and health service related barriers have been cited to have a great impact on the management of the disease in countries with high incidence of TB. Methods & Materials: Using close and open-ended questionnaires, an assessment of the health seeking behaviour of 302 TB patients selected from 24 DOTS centres in six districts in the Central Region of Ghana was carried out. Results: Under service-related barriers, distance from home to DOTS centre significantly impacted on the management of TB among sufferers (p = 0.025). Though not significant, patients acknowledged the good reception by staff at treatment centres with 99.3% of them being comfortable with staff and services provided at centres. Majority (46.7%) of patients perceived TB to be caused by the oral route while only 9.3% knew the causative agent to be bacteria. Compared with males, quite a number of women did not have adequate knowledge on TB (p < 0.05). More than half of the respondents sought treatment elsewhere as first point of treatment before reporting to the DOTS centre. Health insurance played an important role in the health seeking behaviour of respondents; 45.9% of TB patients with health insurance visited the health facility as 1st provider whilst 49.4% without health insurance visited prayer camps (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Our study has revealed that factors such as staff attitude, distance to treatment centres, gender, employment and education are key factors that affect the health-seeking behaviour of TB patients in the Central Region of Ghana.