Role of socio-economic factors in tuberculosis prevalence
Dheeraj Gupta; Kshaunish Das; Balamughesh, T.; Aggarwal, A.N.; Jindal, S.K.
Indian Journal of Tuberculosis 51(1): 27-31
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5707 Document Number: 253924
This case-control study was conducted to determine the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of patients with tuberculosis (TB) and those with other respiratory diseases, who were attending the chest clinic of a tertiary care hospital in Chandigarh, India. Two hundred and fifty consecutive TB cases and 250 patients with respiratory diseases other than TB (controls) were interviewed using pre-designed, structured questionnaires. Univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were carried out to obtain odds ratios separately for each variable. The mean age of TB patients was 35.56 years (SD 13.69). There were 168 men (67.2%) and 82 (32.8%) women among the cases. Most TB patients were of low socioeconomic status. Odds ratio (OR) increased by 3.14 (95% confidence interval (CI), 2.48-3.98; p<0.001) for every decrease of Rs.500/- in the income level per person per month below Rs.2000/-. Similarly, the OR increased by 3.66 (95% CI, 2.9-4.61; p<0.001) with increasing number of persons per room. The ORs for poorer housing, toilet facilities, water supply and consumer articles were also significant. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, age, level of education, crowding, type of housing, water supply and number of consumer articles in the household were independently and significantly associated with a higher risk of TB. It is concluded that there is a significant socioeconomic status-health gradient in TB prevalence; tuberculosis risk increases with lower socioeconomic status.