Abstract:

Objective To investigate the patient visit delay among tuberculosis patients in Shenyang, and analyze the influencing factors in order to provide basis for development of improving measures. Methods This study mainly adopted the method of prospective data collection. From 2017 to 2018, all 205 inpatients who were diagnosed with tuberculosis and ≥15 years old in the second department of tuberculosis in Tenth People’s Hospital of Shenyang City (Shenyang Chest Hospital), were investigated with questionnaires and their clinical data were recorded. Questionnaire survey and clinical data collection included general demographic characteristics (age, gender, body mass index, marital status, education level, floating population, drinking, smoking and insurance type), clinical characteristics (severity of the disease, primary treatment/retreatment, drug resistance, first diagnosing institution, whether paying clinical visit on symptoms, cavity exsistance, sputum smear test results) and knowledge of tuberculosis prevention and control (8 key knowledge about tuberculosis including main transmission route, suspicious symptoms, free policies and professional institutions for tuberculosis prevention and control). In this study, time interval from the date of tuberculosis symptoms onset to the date of first visit to clinical institution ≥14 d was set as the criteria for delay of visit. Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of the delay of visit. Results A total of 205 tuberculosis patients were investigated, among them 110 patients (53.7%) got visit delay. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that living far away from the hospital (OR(95%CI)=3.405(1.102-10.518)),mild illness (OR(95%CI)=12.384(3.558-43.109)),first time of treatment (OR(95%CI)=2.099(1.109-3.974)) and drinking (OR(95%CI)=2.283(1.212-4.299)) were factors affecting the visit delay. Conclusion The visit delay among Shenyang hospitalized TB patients is obvious, which is associated with living far away of the hospital, mild clinical symptoms, first time of treatment and drinking history. The education of tuberculosis relevant knowledge should be enhanced in general population.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Questionnaires, Appointments and schedules, Small-area analysis, Factor analysis, statistical