Social Status Makes a Difference: Tuberculosis Scenario During National Family Health Survey-2

Background: The poorest people are vulnerable to Tuberculosis because of the living and working conditions but they plunge deeper into poverty as a consequence of this disease.

Aims: The present study focuses on the socio-demographic characteristics of patients of TB with specific reference to prevalence of TB and health care seeking behaviour of men and women.

Methods: The data for the study comes from nation-wide National Family Health Survey -2, conducted in 1998-99. Paper looks at the relationship of reporting TB infection and seeking treatment for men and women by various socio-economic characteristics. Multivariate logistic regressions are applied to find the significant factors explaining reporting of TB and treatment-seeking.

Results: In the entire sample 1735 males and 1266 females are reported to suffer from TB. Reporting of TB is significantly (p=0.000) more among males having charecteristics with lower standard of living, scheduled tribes from rural area and illiterate population. It increases with age. Significant difference (p=0.002) is observed between urban and rural female's treatment seeking for TB. In case of females as age increases, treatment seeking goes down (p=0.007). Treatment seeking for currently married women is less frequent than that of all other women.

Conclusions: Apart from economic status and living conditions, place of residence (urban / rural) and ethnic identity made people more vulnerable in terms of reporting the disease and access to treatment.