Tuberculosis risk factors

ABSTRACT

Tuberculosis has continued to be one of the major public health problems in many countries. Many factors are responsible for the persistance of this disease, therefore this work was directed to lay stress on these factors. The sample was taken systematically from patients attending a three agency offering services to tuberculous patients. The sample size was 200 patients while the control group comprised to 100 individuals. It was found that 77.5% of cases and 88% of controls were residing urban areas. The most frequent age among both cases and controls was from 20-39, and males were more prepondant than females. Also it was found that 65% of cases belonged to lower socioeconomic class and 20% of them were house hold contact to tuberculous patient and 30% were smoker compared to 42%, zero% and 27% in the control group respectively. Social problems were found in 22.5% of cases and in 13% in controls. Majority of patients were found to be living in poor housing conditions and 46.5% of them were below average weight, compared to 18% in control group