Publication

Abstract : Background: More than 50% of total Tuberculosis management is being done in private sector in India. It varies from single doctor clinics to tertiary care centres and also include alternative systems of medicine. Government of India and Central TB Division came with Standards of TB Care in India in 2012 with the aim of standardising diagnosis and management of Tuberculosis. Here we are trying to assess the awareness regarding Standards of TB care in India (STCI). Objective: To assess the awareness regarding Standards of TB Care in India among clinicians in Kochi Municipal corporation. Materials and Methods: Cross sectional questionnaire based study using self-made semi structured questionnaire among medical practitioners in Kochi Municipal Corporation. Proportion of “compliant “practitioners working in public and private sector were calculated separately. The key outcome variables were the number (proportion) of practitioners following the STCI Standards for Treatment, diagnosis and notification. Questions 4 to 9 were based on standards for diagnosis, 10 to 13 on treatment and 14 to 17 on standards for notification. Statistical analysis were performed using IBM SPSS version 20.0 software. Categorical variables were presented using frequency and percentage. Numerical variables were expressed using mean and standard deviation. To find the statistical significance in knowledge scores between private and public level doctors, chi-square test was used. P value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: 82% of the practitioners knew that Tuberculosis should be suspected in patients with cough for lasting for more than 2 weeks.Regarding the STCI prescribed standards for treatment of Tuberculosis, only 31% of the study population were aware about the standard regimen for treating a new case of TB. Fifty six percent of the practitioners knew that the Tb cases should be notified. As per grading, 26 doctors were having good knowledge, 53 with average and 26 being poor in knowledge. Most of the findings are comparable with previous studies There is statistically significant difference in the knowledge among the private and public sector practitioners. (p value =0.01. There is a need for extensive measures for strengthening the awareness of STCI.