Work

Tuberculosis and AIDS stigma among patients who delay seeking care for TB symptoms

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Delay in presentation to a health facility is an important concern for tuberculosis (TB) control. The effect of stigma on delay in seeking care for TB symptoms is not well studied, especially in the context of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-epidemic. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association of TB and acquired immune-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) stigma on delay in seeking care for TB symptoms. METHODS: For 480 newly diagnosed patients with TB, time from first TB symptom to the first visit to a qualified provider was calculated. Stigma scales were administered to each patient to obtain a stigma score. RESULTS: Among men, those with higher TB stigma had a small increase in delay times, while women had a small decrease in delay. Among patients presenting with hemoptysis, higher TB stigma was associated with a small increase in delay, while among patients presenting with fever or extra-pulmonary symptoms only, higher TB and AIDS stigma resulted in shorter delay times. CONCLUSION: In a population with a relatively short median delay (26 days), the impact of TB and AIDS stigma translates into a minimal change in delay time. This suggests that stigma does not have a clinically relevant effect on TB patient delay in southern Thailand.

Source: PubMed

DOI: 10.17615/cwcb-4864

Author: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries

Language: English

Topic: Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology

Subfield: Infectious Diseases

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fogarty International Center, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Awards: Impact of malnutrition on TB-IRIS and pharmacokinetics of TB and ARV co-treatment, Social Stigma of the New Tuberculosis, Training in Infectious Disease Epidemiology (TIDE), The University of North Carolina Center for AIDS Research