Knowledge on tuberculosis, services of TB control programme and associated socio-demographic inequity among rural participants of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India: A cross sectional study

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the top 10 causes of deaths worldwide. India is still a highest TB burden country. There is scarcity of data on TB knowledge from Rajasthan state of India. Materials & Methods: Cross-sectional community based study was carried out at Model Rural Health Research Unit, Jaipur, an unit of Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. Results: Study reports the result from 1993 adult participants from 10 villages of 2 sub-districts of district Jaipur. About 88.9% of studied participants knew that TB is an infectious disease and it spreads from TB patient to healthy person in close contact. Only 22.3% of participants knew DOTS is the name of treatment for TB. While, only 58.9% knew sputum is used for diagnosis of TB at health centres. Scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes social groups knew less than the mainstream General social group. The observed difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). Logistic regression analysis estimated the relative contribution in knowledge status. Discussion: The knowledge of study participants on transmission of tuberculosis was similar to the knowledge of population in country wide study. They poorly knew that sputum is used for diagnosing the tuberculosis disease; socio-demographic inequity exists in this knowledge too. People from older age groups, underprivileged social groups and minority need extra educational activities.