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.


OBJECTIVE
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.
Kaulagekar
Aarti
A
Inter-disciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Pune, Pune - 411 007.
Radkar
Anjali
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data