Treatment Seeking Behaviour among TB Patients Registered Under RNTCP in District Bareilly

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health problem and ranks the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide. India is the highest TB burden country accounting for more than one fifth of the global burden of tuberculosis. The objectives were (1) To assess the treatment seeking behaviour of TB patients registered under RNTCP in a select district and (2) to determine the default rate in patients having history of treatment interruptions.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the TB patients registered during 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2016 under RNTCP for DOTS in Bareilly. Purposive sampling was carried out, 10 DMCs were selected in district Bareilly of which a total of 2010 TB patients were interviewed.

Results and Conclusions: In the present study majority of the patients were in the age group of 20-39 years (35.0%), male (55.7%) and were sputum positive (69.5%) Cases with a history of treatment interruption had a very high default rate of 23.3% while cases that didn’t interrupt their treatment had a low default rate of 3.93%. This association was found to be statistically significant. People who had a positive history for treatment interruption had seven times more risk of becoming a defaulter.