Abstract:
Background: Total treatment delay of Pulmonary Tuberculosis patients defined as the time
from onset of Tuberculosis symptoms to the initiation of specific anti-TB treatment.
Delayed treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis Patients increases the risk of morbidity,
mortality and rates of infection in the community.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of total treatment
delay & associated factors among PTB Patients in West Shoa zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2021.
Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study was conducted among 232 Pulmonary
Tuberculosis patients in West Shoa zone public health facilities selected by simple random
sampling technique from December 1-30, 2021. Data were collected face-to-face through
interviewer administered questionnaire. The collected data was cleaned, coded and entered
in to Epi data 3.5.1, and exported to SPSS version 20 software for analysis. Bivariate
analysis of < 0.25 in the bivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify candidate
variables for multivariate logistic regression. P-value < 0.05 was used to declare a significant
association with the outcome in multivariate logistic regression analysis. Adjusted odds ratio
with the corresponding 95% confidence interval computed to identify independent predictors
of total treatment delay.
Result: Out of the total 236 PTB patients included, 232 patients participated in the study
with a response rate of 98.3%. The median patient, the health system and total treatment
delays was 30, 23 & 53 days, respectively. The magnitude of delay of the study respondents
who delayed treatment initiation after diagnosis was 101(43.5%). Factors independently
associated with total treatment delay of PTB patients were low income households (AOR:
1.40, CI=1.01-1.95) & repeat health facilities visit (AOR: 2.00, CI=1.27- 3.15).
Conclusions: According to this study low income of households, knowledge of symptoms &
severity of PTB, repeat visit of health facility, transport & laboratory cost had a significant
relationship with total treatment delay
