[A cost-effectiveness study on a case-finding program of tuberculosis through screening those suspects with chronic cough symptoms in the rich rural areas].
OBJECTIVE
To study the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a case-finding program on tuberculosis (TB) in richer rural areas.


METHODS
Screening was implemented every three months for a total period of 9 months, in rural areas with high case notification rates. Three villages, each with ten thousand population, were selected to carry out a household screening program. A suspect was defined as who coughed for more than 3 weeks. The suspect was then referred to further diagnosis in county TB dispensary to undergo chest X-ray and sputum test.


RESULTS
Of the 86,168 community population screened, 26 TB patients were identified with 7 of them were smear positive. The ratio of effectiveness vs. cost decreased on the second but slightly increased on the third screening program. The direct costs for the 3 screening programs were 6,312,397 and 1637 RMB respectively. Of total direct cost, 5.9% was paid by TB patients, whereas 35.9% was through financing of the county itself.


CONCLUSIONS
The community household screening program could achieve higher case detection rate than passive case-finding approach which could be used in richer areas with low case detection rate in China.
Wang
Wei-bing
WB
School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Wang
Fa-di
FD
Xu
Biao
B
Zhu
Jian-fu
JF
Shen
Wei
W
Xiao
Xi-rong
XR
Jiang
Qing-wu
QW
D002681:China; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003371:Cough / Q000209:etiology; D005191:Family Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D012423:Rural Health; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*