title: Health Seeking Behaviour among Tuberculosis Patients in India: A Systematic Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme's (RNTCP) passive case finding approach strongly influence the health seeking behaviour of patients and the timing of health seeking as well.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  A systematic review was carried out to understand the health seeking behaviour, related delays and the knowledge and attitude regarding Tuberculosis (TB) and the health services linked with it.
  
  
  METHODS
  A manual search strategy was adopted using PUBMED and Google Scholar search engines to obtain research papers in the said subject. Of 113 articles obtained by the end of this search process 10 full text articles were finally selected for the purpose of this review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 10 studies identified, the results were delineated in 7 thematic areas such as: (1) Knowledge and perception of TB patients regarding TB and health services for TB; (2) Delays in seeking help; (3) Facility based health seeking behaviour; (4) Reasons for not seeking care/Delay in seeking care; (5) Geographical pattern (Rural-Urban) of health seeking; (6) Socio-cultural factors associated with health seeking; and (7) Gender based health seeking behaviour.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Health seeking behaviour and related delays are of utmost importance in TB care from two important perspectives; firstly TB requires timely treatment and secondly it requires protracted treatment. Required level of knowledge and positive health behaviour helps the patients in taking timely help from appropriate health facility.
authors.affiliation: Independent Public Health Researcher, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India .
authors.forename: Janmejaya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Samal
keywords: Health system delay; Help seeking; Patient delay; Treatment delay