Delayed treatment of tuberculosis patients in rural areas of Yogyakarta province, Indonesia

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-393

BMC Public Health
Volume 8

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Research article

Delayed treatment of tuberculosis patients in rural areas of Yogyakarta province, Indonesia

Yodi Mahendradhata¹^,2^,3 , Bobby M Syahrizal² and Adi Utarini¹^,2

¹Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

²FIDELIS project, Faculty of Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

³Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit, Public Health Department, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

author email corresponding author email

BMC Public Health 2008, 8:393doi:10.1186/1471-2458-8-393


Published:	26 November 2008

Abstract

Background

In year 2000, the entire population in Indonesia was 201 million and 57.6 percent of that was living in rural areas. This paper reports analyses that address to what extent the rural structure influence the way TB patients seek care prior to diagnosis by a DOTS facility.

Methods

We documented healthcare utilization pattern of smear positive TB patients prior to diagnosis and treatment by DOTS services (health centre, chest clinic, public and private hospital) in Yogyakarta province. We calculated the delay in treatment as the number of weeks between the onset of symptoms and the start of DOTS treatment. Statistical analysis was carried out with Epi Info version 3.3 (October 5, 2004).

Results

The only factor which was significantly associated with total delay was urban-rural setting (p = < 0.0001). The median total delay for TB patients in urban districts was 8 (1^stQuartile = 4; 3^rdQuartile = 12) weeks compared to 12 (1^stQuartile = 7; 3^rdQuartile = 23) weeks for patients in rural districts. Multivariate analysis suggested no confounding between individual factors and urban-rural setting remained as the main factor for total delay (p = < 0.0001). Primary health centre was the first choice provider for most (38.7%) of these TB patients. Urban-rural setting was also the only factor which was significantly associated with choice of first provider (p = 0.03).

Conclusion

Improving access to DOTS services in rural areas is an area of vital importance in aiming to make progress toward achieving TB control targets in Indonesia.