076 |
A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE AWARENESS OF SYMPTOMS
SUGGESTIVE OF PULMO NARY TUBERCULOSIS |
D Banerji & Stig Andersen: Bull WHO 1963, 29,
665-83 |
This study was undertaken in 34 villages and 4
town blocks where a few weeks earlier an epidemiological survey
was carried out. All persons above 20 years whose photofluorograms
were read as inactive, probably active, or active by at least one
reader, were age sex matched with an equal number of X-ray normals,
to form the experimental and control groups respectively. Thus,
a total of 2,106 were eligible for social investigation. Interview
sheets, with particulars of the name and location of village, household
number, and individual number and the identifiable data of the interviewees
were made available to the social investigators at random for contacting
and interviewing them at their homes. The interviews were non- suggestive
in nature and deep probing on the details of symptoms experienced
by the respondent, which were fully recorded. About 79% of the experimental
group and 83% of the control group were satisfactorily interviewed,
which constituted the data further analysed. Of the numerous symptoms
recorded, only that were associated with pulmonary tuberculosis
were considered, of which cough occurring for one month or more,
fever for a month or more, pain in the chest, haemoptysis and all
combination of these four symptoms were analysed statistically.
Cough was found to be the most important
single symptom. It was not only the most frequent symptom alone
or in combination in the experimental group but was less frequent
in the control group that 69% of sputum positive and 46% of radiological
positive had cough while only 9% of the control group had it. Considerably
fewer people had fever and pain in the chest. Pain in the chest
appears to be non- specific, giving a ratio of only 2:l among the
experimental and control groups while fever was in the ratio of
6:l and haemoptysis was ll:l. It was seen that 69% of the sputum
positive cases, 52% of the X-ray active or probably active, 29%
of the inactive and 15% of the normals (control group) had at least
one of the above mentioned symptoms. In all the groups, the proportion
of symptoms were higher among males than among females. In both
males and females the prevalence of symptoms was higher in the middle
age groups than among the younger or older groups. This age variation
was more marked in the females. The findings of the study were analysed
further along with the data obtained from a couple of minor investigations,
conducted in the rest of the 28 villages which formed the total
of the villages surveyed epidemiologically. This brought out further
that 95% of bacteriologically positive cases are aware of symptoms,
72% experience 'worry awareness' and 52% form the action taking
group. The above findings have been of considerable importance
in planning further studies and in formulating the National Tuberculosis
Programme.
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KEY WORDS: SOCIAL AWARENESS, SYMPTOMS, SOCIAL
ASPECTS, CASE, SUSPECT CASE. |