Health seeking behaviour and reasons for delay in diagnosis and care of tuberculosis patients in a tertiary care hospital, Berhampur

Introduction: Tuberculosis kills more youth and adults than any other infectious disease and so strikes the most productive age group. When left untreated a smear positive case can infect between 10-15 persons per year. Therefore early detection followed by effective treatment is imperative for the successful control of tuberculosis. Objective: 1.To explores the different patterns of health seeking behaviour of patients from first presentations till diagnosis. (2) To find out the relationships between sociodemographic & life style factors with the time of presentations & diagnosis. (3) To reveal the factors associated with patient delay, health system delay and irregularities after initiation of treatment. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at Pulmonary medicine OPD of MKCG Medical College, Berhampur and Chest OPD of District Headquarter Hospital, Berhampur for a period of one year between Ist June 2013 – 31 may 2014. Results: Majority of the patients (43.9%) were service holders followed by other occupations. 42% of the patients belonged to class V followed by 23% who belonged to class IV socio-economic status. The most common symptom with which the patients presented with were cough (94%) and fever (87.5%). It was observed that most common reasons for patient delay was the belief of not so serious cough (88.5%), dependency followed by financial constraints in 72.9% subjects. Conclusion: Considering the high magnitude of pre-treatment delay it is imperative to access a simple and rapid diagnostic test for TB that can be used at the lower healthcare facility level.