A study on socio demographic profile of patients having cough of two weeks or, more along with their smear microscopy outcome attending a tertiary care hospital of Jharkhand, India

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease, but still millions of people suffer every year and a number of them die from this disease, resulting in devastating social and economic impact. Delay in tuberculosis diagnosis may also lead to a more advanced disease state at presentation, which contributes to adverse sequelae and overall mortality. Each sputum positive case can infect 10-15 individuals in a year, if not treated. Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) has also defined Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) suspects as persons having cough of two weeks or , more with or, without presence of other symptoms suggestive of TB .So, cough symptomatics (having cough = 2 weeks) are an important group to be followed for early diagnosis of TB infection. This study was carried with an objective of assessing the socio demographic profile, risk factors along with sputum microscopy outcome among cough symptomatics. It was a cross sectional, descriptive, hospital based study and conducted at DOTS Microscopy Centre (DMC) of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS),during a period of nearly four months (75 working days assuming 20 working days per month).A total of 225 cough symptomatics were selected by simple random sampling and interviewed by using pre tested, semi structured questionnaire after getting their consent. Significant (p<0.05) association was seen in males, rural area, lower socioeconomic status, family history of TB, overcrowding, smoking and alcohol with sputum positivity rate.