Diagnostic and Treatment Delay and Associated Factors in Patients with Tuberculosis in Sistan, Iran

Background and purpose: Delay in diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) patients with positive sputum is a main reason for spread of the disease. The present study aimed at investigating delayed diagnosis and treatment of patients with positive tuberculosis in Sistan, Iran. Materials and methods: This cross sectional study was conducted among 384 patients with positive smear tuberculosis in 2016- 2017. The information was collected from the Health Department of Zabol University of Medical Sciences. Results: The mean days for diagnostic delay and treatment delay were 31 days and zero day, respectively. Treatment delay among patients with previous history of TB treatment was higher than that of new cases (P= 0.004).  Higher degrees of smear positivity led to greater delay in diagnosis (P= 0.003). Other factors, including age (P= 0.361), gender (P= 0.70), nationality (P= 0.29), place of residence (P= 0.90), job (P= 0.154), and educational background (P= 0.298) had no significant effect on the delay in diagnosis. But, job status was found to have a significant effect on the delay in treatment of TB patients (P= 0.015).  Conclusion: In this study, most of the patients with smear positive pulmonary TB were diagnosed more than one month after the onset of symptoms. But the treatment in most cases was on time. The type of TB and the degree of smear positivity could play a role in diagnostic delay.