Fazlul Karim tries to assess socioeconomic and gender differences in the use of the DOTS services...

The aims of the study were to measure the prevalence of smear-positive pulmonary TB (PTB) in different population groups, understand the patterns of people’s behaviour of and barriers to healthcare seeking for respiratory illnesses, assess socioeconomic and gender differences in the use of the DOTS services including treatment, and explore the role of the private informal healthcare providers in the DOTS strategy at the community level.

The specific objectives of the study were to: (i) measure the prevalence of smear-positive PTB among different socioeconomic groups of population;(ii) assess the socioeconomic and gender background of sputum-positive TB cases and patients enrolled with BRAC and DF for TB treatment; (iii) assess healthcare seeking patterns of TB cases along with their sources and barriers to healthcare seeking; and (iv) explore the role of the informal private healthcare providers (PHP) in TB case detection and treatment, including the mechanisms they follow for monitoring TB treatment and adherence.

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