title: Filipino women's tuberculosis care seeking experience in an urban poor setting: a socioecological perspective.
abstract: Urban, poor Filipino women tend to delay seeking care for tuberculosis (TB), which increases their risk for morbidity and mortality. We interviewed 13 women and conducted three focus group discussions to characterize their TB care seeking pathways and identify the barriers and facilitators that influence care seeking at multiple levels. The quality of health services, shame associated with TB, financial insecurity, and familial responsibilities hindered care seeking, while support from community health volunteers and family members encouraged it. Strategies to improve TB control should create social support systems and improve the quality of health services to promote timely care seeking.
authors.affiliation: Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2103, USA. alhu@jhsph.edu
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Loo
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Winch
authors.forename: Pamela J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Surkan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D010679:Philippines; D011203:Poverty; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D014505:Urban Population; D016387:Women's Health