Sociological inquiry into perception and health seeking behaviour of tuberculosis in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) has been identified as second to the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) as a cause of death and ranks seventh among all illnesses. Based on available data, in 2007, an estimated 13.7 million chronic cases were active globally, while in 2013, an estimated 9 million new cases and 1.5 million associated deaths occurred, mostly in developing countries. The World Health Organization declared TB a "global health emergency" in 1993, and in 2006, the Stop TB Partnership developed a Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis that aims to save 14 million lives between its launch and 2015. In the case of Nigeria, the World Health Organisation in 2013 Global TB report estimated that a total of 180,000 TB cases occur annually in Nigeria. According to the available report in 2014, Nigeria ranks 11th among the 22 high burden countries with cases of tuberculosis. Going by official data, Nigeria has climbed to the third (3rd) position among the 22 countries with the highest prevalence of the TB in the world. According to the 2017 Global TB report, Nigeria has the highest TB burden in Africa. It is among the six countries that accounted for 60 percent of the global burden of TB. The study adopted Cross-Sectional survey design. Both quantitative and qualitative (Questionnaire and In-depth interview) research methods were adopted for the study. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select LGAs, Communities (Urban and Rural), household and respondents. Using purposive sampling method, a total number of respondents from the towns (urban) to be 765 and from the villages (rural) 750 respondents with a combined total of 1,515 participants for the study. For the qualitative data, two categories of In-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted. The first category consists of 20 health care providers, particularly nurses and doctors that are directly involved in treating TB patients. The second conducted by the researcher with 25 tuberculosis patients from Federal hospital (UCH-Ibadan) and Oyo state government hospital (Adeoyo) and a private hospital (Oluyoro Hospital) only. Data from questionnaire which was the major instruments were coded, processed and  analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics such as percentage, frequency tables and charts was used to present the results. Chi –square was used to test hypotheses while Logistics Regression Analysis was used to predict the influence of socio-demographic variables on health seeking behavior of people in tuberculosis cases. ATLAS.ti, was used for the analysis of qualitative data. Graphics and tables showing the groundedness of the responses from IDIs sessions were used to present the results. The study concluded with far reaching
recommendations.

Keywords: Tuberculosis, Perception, Health seeking behavior, prevalence, Oyo State-Nigeria