Knowledge on tuberculosis, stigma and health seeking behaviour among adults infected with Tuberculosis at Kiswa Health Centre IV TB Clinic under Kampala Capital City Authority

Abstract

The study focused on the knowledge on TB, stigma and health seeking behaviors among adult patients at Kiswa Health Centre IV. The objectives were to examine the relationship between the knowledge on TB, stigma and health seeking behaviors among adult TB patients. Patients confront several problems in timely and effective utilization of TB health facilities which have often delayed diagnosis of TB. It is hence the need of the hour to look beyond the case detection rates towards other factors that can promote early diagnosis. A method, cross-sectional study was conducted among adult who were on medication for the intensive phase of treatment. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to study knowledge, stigma, health seeking behaviors and treatment out comes. The average number of patients with adequate knowledge about tuberculosis and women had a significantly higher knowledge score than the male patients due to their life style like smoking and sharing local brew sipping tubes.