Tuberculosis Knowledge and Delayed Health Care Seeking Among New Diagnosed Tuberculosis Patients in Primary Health Facilities in an Urban District, South Africa

Abstract

Patients’ delay in seeking health care is a major problem in the control of tuberculosis (TB) and increases the risk of TB transmission. This study determined health-seeking practices and delays that occurred from the onset of TB symptoms until diagnosis and assessed the patients’ TB-related knowledge. This was a cross-sectional study involving 391 new TB patients recruited from health facilities at an urban sub-district in South Africa from December 2016 to March 2017. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were performed using Stata 14. Over half (56.3%) of the patients delayed seeking health care for more than 30 days after the onset of their symptoms, 32% sought treatment from informal providers, and 13.3% self-medicated. Lack of suspicion of a TB diagnosis, which was prevalent in 45% of respondents, was statistically associated with delay in seeking healthcare (AOR = 0.53, CI: 0.32-1.87). Overall TB knowledge was high, correct knowledge about TB transmission was 92.6%. TB knowledge was significantly associated with educational status (AOR = 3.96, CI: 1.69-9.28) and seeking treatment from informal sectors (AOR = 0.17, CI: 0.03-0.95). High overall TB knowledge was not statistically associated with seeking health care for TB diagnosis and treatment. We found a substantial delay between the onset of TB symptoms and seeking healthcare from a public health facility providing TB screening services. Promoting early screening and diagnosis through increasing awareness of TB is key in the elimination of TB in communities with a high TB burden

Delay in Healthcare-Seeking Behavior and its Associated Factors among Tuberculosis Patients Attending TB Clinic in Hawassa City Health Facilities in Sidamma Region, Hawassa Ethiopia, 2022

“…It was lower than studies have done Tigray region showed that 44.8% [20][21][22][23][24], Gamo zone (56.9%) [25][26][27], South Africa (56.3%) [28], Nigeria (61.8%) [29], and North Wollo Zone (62.3%) of patients consult after control and prevention programs in low-and middleincome settings [13][14][15][16].…”

Lessons from a systematic tracing process aimed to reduce initial loss to follow-up (ILTFU) among people diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) in Cape Town, South Africa

“…Our feedback allowed the PHDC to update their data. While we acknowledge that patient-related factors also play a role in linkage [2,3,26,27], this study highlights key aspects within the TB program that can be targeted to improve linkage to TB care; improved data capturing, real-time data availability, improved communication between healthcare workers and persons with TB and updating contact details at every healthcare visit.…”

Healthcare seeking patterns for TB symptoms: Findings from the first national TB prevalence survey of South Africa, 2017–2019

“…Studies have shown that people with TB symptoms delay seeking care for at least one month [12,13] which indicates that they contribute to sustained community transmission of TB. In this analysis the survey criteria for symptoms were a duration of at least two weeks for night sweats, weight loss, and fever, and although 60% of participants reported intention to seek care, our findings are nonetheless suggestive of delayed healthcare seeking consistent with…”

“…the literature [12,13]. Care seeking was delayed even among those who reported cough of 2 weeks or longer (S2 and S4 Tables).…”