Centro Nacional de Medicina Tropical, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
Fundación Estatal, Salud, Infancia y Bienestar Social (FCSAI), Madrid, Spain.
J Epidemiol Glob Health. 2023 Dec;13(4):886-894. doi: 10.1007/s44197-023-00162-9. Epub 2023 Oct 23.
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality from a single infectious disease agent. Equatorial Guinea is a country with high estimated TB incidence in 2021 (275 cases per 100,000 population) and low TB case detection (42%). Early diagnosis and prompt treatment are crucial for TB control. Failure to seek adequate health care increases the disease's transmission and leads to poor treatment outcome, the mortality, even for easily manageable conditions. Information regarding community management of TB and treatment-seeking patterns in Equatorial Guinea is rare. The aim of this study was to explore differences in TB health-seeking behaviour among urban and rural population TB cases in Equatorial Guinea and the factors associated with this behaviour.
A national cross-sectional study of 770 household caregivers was conducted in 2020 in Equatorial Guinea using multistage stratified sampling. The 284 caregivers that reported having had a TB case in their family were included in this study. A practice index was created. Poisson regression with robust variance was performed with the practices index as dependent variable to assess the factors associated with the health-seeking behaviour.
Most of the cases (65%) have had good TB health-seeking practices. However, 23.2% of TB cases reported having abandoned treatment before 6 months. A higher probability of having good TB practices was observed with being women, aged and living in rural area. Those who were TB cases themselves have heard about TB on the radio, and had high knowledge about TB, hand also good practices.
Disparities in tuberculosis health-seeking behaviour between rural and urban populations highlight the challenges existing in the fight against this infectious disease. The National Tuberculosis Control Program has to reinforce the health system needs to strengthen the follow-up of TB patients taking into account the population at risk of inappropriate TB behaviour.
Not applicable.
结核病（TB）是由单一传染病病原体引起的主要死亡原因之一。赤道几内亚是一个估计 2021 年结核病发病率高（每 10 万人中有 275 例）和结核病病例检出率低（42%）的国家。早期诊断和及时治疗对结核病控制至关重要。未能寻求适当的医疗保健会增加疾病的传播，并导致治疗效果不佳，甚至对于容易处理的情况，死亡率也会增加。关于赤道几内亚社区结核病管理和治疗寻求模式的信息很少。本研究旨在探讨赤道几内亚城乡结核病患者在结核病卫生服务寻求行为方面的差异，以及与这种行为相关的因素。
2020 年，在赤道几内亚采用多阶段分层抽样方法进行了一项针对 770 名家庭照顾者的全国横断面研究。本研究纳入了 284 名报告家中有结核病病例的照顾者。创建了一个实践指数。使用泊松回归和稳健方差，以实践指数为因变量，评估与卫生服务寻求行为相关的因素。
大多数病例（65%）有良好的结核病卫生服务寻求行为。然而，23.2%的结核病病例报告在 6 个月前放弃治疗。女性、年龄较大和居住在农村地区的结核病病例更有可能有良好的结核病实践。那些自己是结核病病例的人在广播中听说过结核病，并且对结核病有很高的认识，也有良好的实践。
城乡人群在结核病卫生服务寻求行为方面的差异突出了在抗击这种传染病方面存在的挑战。国家结核病控制规划必须加强卫生系统，考虑到有不当结核病行为风险的人群，加强对结核病患者的随访。
不适用。
