Abstract:

Objective To analyze the referral and tracing of suspected tuberculosis patients in non-tuberculosis (TB) and TB control agencies in Feixi, Anhui, and to provide reference for further strengthening TB control and prevention.Methods The information of 2875 suspected TB cases reported by non-TB control agencies in 2014 to 2017 was collected. With the date to implement “the trinity”, December 15, 2015 was set as the point of division, the suspected TB patients were divided into two groups, which included 1690 suspected TB cases reported in January 2014 to December 14, 2015 was traditional group, and 1185 suspected TB patients reported in December 15, 2015 to December 2017 were included in the improving group. Excel 2007 and SPSS 16.0 software were used to analyze the referral, tracing, arrival, diagnosis and patient registration. Chi-square test was applied to compare the count data between the two groups, and the difference was statistically significant with P<0.05.Results From 2014 to 2017, there were totally 2705 suspected TB cases who were reported and should be referred by non-TB control agencies in Feixi arrived, with an overall arrival rate of 94.1% (2705/2875). Among them, the overall arrival rate of patients in the traditional group was 93.3% (1576/1690), and that of the improved group was 95.3% (1129/1185). The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (χ ²=5.11, P=0.024). 1424 cases were diagnosed as TB, which accounted for 52.6% (1424/2705) of the arrival patients. The rates of patients diagnosed with active TB in the traditional group and the improved group were 50.9% (802/1576) and 55.1% (622/1129), respectively, with statistically significant difference between the two groups (χ ²=4.67, P=0.031). There were 1049 cases arrived after referral, and the referral arrival rate was 36.5% (1049/2875), the rates of traditional group and improvement group were 27.3% (461/1690) and 49.6% (588/1185), and have statistical significance (χ ²=150.04, P=0.000). There were 1630 cases arrived after tracing, and the tracing arrival rate was 90.6% (1630/1800). The tracking arrival rates of the traditional group and the improved group were 90.6% (1096/1210) and 90.5% (534/590) respectively, and there was no statistically significant difference (χ ²=0.00, P=0.962). From 2014 to 2017, 1424 patients out of 2875 patients who were reported by non-TB control institutions were diagnosed as pulmonary TB cases, which accounted for 82.4% (1424/1729) of the patients registered in TB control institutions in the same period, and the proportions in the traditional group and improving group were 88.9% (802/902) and 75.2% (622/827), with statistical significance (χ ²=55.75, P=0.000).Conclusion Reporting suspected TB patients by non-TB control institutions is an important way to find TB cases, the suspected TB patients detection and diagnosed after arrival can be further improved by the Implementation of “trinity” TB control mode.

Key words: Tuberculosis, Patient transfer, Lost to follow-up, Data interpretation, statistical