1Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical & Health Sciences, Uttarakhand
2Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, SHKM Government Medical College, Haryana
3Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Government Degree College, Gonda, Uttar Pradesh
4Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, ESIC Medical College, Faridabad, Haryana
5Demonstrator, Department of Pharmacology, SHKM Government Medical College, Haryana
*Corresponding author: Dr. Abhishek Singh, Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Shaheed Hasan Khan Mewati Govt. Medical College, Haryana. Telephone- 8199001422, E-mail address- mail2aks1@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 26 September, 2019.
Identification of reasons behind TB stigma will enable us to provide programmatic inputs for effective intervention strategies. Aim of this investigation was to study the social stigma among the tuberculosis patients.
One hundred and fifty tuberculosis patients seeking treatment at DOTS centers were interviewed using semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. Subjects diagnosed with tuberculosis, taking treatment at these DOTS centers and patients of age more than 18 years formed the inclusion criteria. Study subjects were randomly selected and interviewed when they visited the DOTS center.
Out of total, 65.3% subjects experienced stigma. 42% had fear of disclosing illness to his or her friends. Almost 31% did not disclose their illness to friends. In 20% of the cases, their friends avoided them after knowing about their illness. About 64% had fear of disclosing illness at place of work. Almost 34% of study subjects did not disclose their illness at workplace. Problems related to marriage prospects were expressed by 48.6% of unmarried female patients.
Stigma among tuberculosis patients still remains a problem. We found scope to improve various aspects like motivate patient's family to provide family support, involvement of community DOTS providers in order to reduce negative reactions of the family. Client centered tailored approach to reduce TB stigma is expected to pay dividends towards effective tuberculosis control.
Tuberculosis, Social stigma, Workplace
