Socio-Demographic Determinants of Adult Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients: A Hospital Based Study at Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a multi-system infectious disease with a major cause of morbidity and mortality all over the world but particularly in developing countries like Bangladesh. A normal healthy individual does not face the symptoms causing by tuberculosis due to their immune system that’s why infection among healthy individuals always remain silent. As it is highly infectious air borne disease that’s why treatment completion for TB is the cornerstone of its control and prevention. So to understand these factors efficiently this study was carried out about socio-demographic determinants of adult TB patients attending the tertiary care teaching hospital, Dhanmondi, Dhaka. Methodology: This was hospital based cross sectional observational study done at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, Dhanmondi, Dhaka with the study period from January 2020 to December 2021.Total 410 patients of age group 18 years and above with persistent cough with sputum production for more than 2 weeks were enrolled for this study purpose. Results: Total prevalence of sputum positive adult pulmonary TB among the studied group was 69.02%. Majority 54% were male patients in the age group of 41-50 years (31.45%). Pulmonary TB was predominantly diagnosed among employed group 41.34%, those who have completed their high school level (34.28%) in mainly the rural (66.08%) locality. Joint family (61%) with 8-10 family members (43.46%) have been found mostly affected in our study. The cardinal features were cough with sputum production (80.21%) followed by fatigue (71.73%), fever (42.05%), sweating (46.99%), loss of appetite (32.86%) and weight loss (27.56%). Pulmonary TB was found mostly among smokers (57.23%) with normal BMI (44.88%). Conclusion: To decrease the rate of infection with Tuberculosis, a multi-factorial approach can play the pivotal role by improving the living conditions, education level, economic status and adequate sanitation. Awareness can bring a new dimension in this regard.