Department of Community Medicine, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
Department of Community Medicine, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital; Department of Community Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
Int J Mycobacteriol. 2021 Jan-Mar;10(1):71-78. doi: 10.4103/ijmy.ijmy_2_21.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of ill-health and death globally but a serious challenge to its control is low case notification. In low- and middle-income countries, most patients with symptoms of the disease first seek care from patent medicine vendors (PMVs) who are not formerly trained to manage TB. The practices of PMVs toward presumptive TB are pivotal to control of TB.
The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of practices toward presumptive TB and assess their determinants among PMVs.
The study was carried out in Ebonyi State Nigeria using descriptive cross-sectional design. Through a multistage sampling, 250 PMVs were selected and interviewed. Data were collected using pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire and analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 22 (IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., USA). Chi-square test and binary logistic regression were used to determine factors associated with practices toward presumptive TB with P value set at 0.05 for statistical significance.
Almost half (48.8%) of the respondents engaged in poor practices by inadequate referral of clients (45.2%), delayed referral (69.6%), and unstandardized treatment with antibiotics (56.4%). There was no statistically significant association between independent variables and practice and none of the variables significantly predicted practice.
There were poor practices toward presumptive TB shown in inadequate referral, delayed referral, and unstandardized treatment of clients. We recommend that PMVs should be trained and regularly sensitized about TB to improve their practices and that regulatory authorities should enforce policies on antibiotics distribution and sale.
结核病（TB）是全球范围内导致健康不良和死亡的主要原因，但控制结核病的一个严重挑战是低病例报告率。在低收入和中等收入国家，大多数有该疾病症状的患者首先会寻求专利药品供应商（PMV）的治疗，而 PMV 没有接受过管理结核病的正式培训。PMV 对疑似结核病的处理方法对结核病的控制至关重要。
本研究旨在描述 PMV 对疑似结核病的处理模式，并评估其决定因素。
本研究在尼日利亚埃邦伊州使用描述性横断面设计进行。通过多阶段抽样，选择了 250 名 PMV 进行访谈。使用经过预测试的访谈者管理问卷收集数据，并使用 IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows，版本 22（IBM Corp.，Armonk，NY，USA）进行分析。使用卡方检验和二元逻辑回归来确定与疑似结核病处理相关的因素，P 值设为 0.05 用于统计学意义。
近一半（48.8%）的受访者采取了不良做法，包括不充分转介客户（45.2%）、延迟转介（69.6%）和未标准化使用抗生素治疗（56.4%）。独立变量与实践之间没有统计学上的显著关联，也没有任何变量显著预测实践。
PMV 对疑似结核病的处理方法存在不足，包括不充分转介、延迟转介和未标准化的客户治疗。我们建议培训和定期提高 PMV 对结核病的认识，以改善他们的实践，监管机构应执行有关抗生素分发和销售的政策。
