A study on awareness of Tuberculosis amongst patients attending a rural health center in Tamilnadu, Indi
Background: Tuberculosis has turned out to be one of the complex health issues worldwide. In the year 2015, there were an estimated 10.4 million new (incident) TB cases worldwide, of which 5.9 million (56%) were among men, 3.5 million (34%) among women and 1.0 million (10%) among children. People living with HIV accounted for 1.2 million (11%) of all new TB cases. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted amongst patients attending the OPD of rural health center of a medical college hospital at Kancheepuram. Data were collected between March 11th to May 10th for a period of about 2 months. A total of 200 patients were included for this study. Two hundred patients who attended the OPD between March 11th to May 10th were selected as study subjects. Results: Of the 200 participants who participated in this study 104 were males (52%) and 96 were females (48%). Knowledge regarding Tuberculosis was assessed based on analyzing the data regarding knowledge on various aspects of the disease like cause, perception, mode of spread, prevention and treatment. About 160 study subjects (80%) had heard about the disease tuberculosis before and only a minority (20%) reported that they had never heard tuberculosis before. Conclusions: Though the population is aware of the disease Tuberculosis, their knowledge about its risk factors, mode of spread and treatment is not satisfactory. It is observed that several misconceptions about the disease still exist amongst the study population. There is need to provide essential knowledge about Tuberculosis to the general population.