Stigmatisation of tuberculosis patients.

ABSTRACT

Background: Stigma is an important barrier to tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment. This research has been conducted to determine the status of the stigmatisation of tuberculosis patients. Methods: Descriptive study. This research population consisted of 129 patients with tuberculosis who have been undergoing a treatment in Ankara. This study was conducted between 03.09.2012 and 31.01.2013. The data have been collected using the “socio-demographic questionnaire” and “Stigma scale for patients with tuberculosis”. Evaluation of data has been carried out using numbers, percentages and t test, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey tests. Results: 50.4% of the patients who participated in our research were females and 60.5% had pulmonary tuberculosis. In this study, the mean score of the patients in the general scale was = 69.6 ± 12.6, and stigma levels of more than half of the patients (53.4%) were determined to be high. The highest average score of the patients in the scale was at the “Felt stigma” sub-dimension ( = 29.9 ± 6.3), while the lowest average score was at the “Family/friend Relationship” sub-dimension ( = 11.3 ± 3.8). Conclusions: The healthcare institutions and authorities dealing with tuberculosis can perform practices that reduce the stigma levels of the patients and the society by making use of the conclusions of this research.