Delay in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis: a report from Afghanistan

Table 4 Factors associated with delays in tuberculosis treatment (multiple linear regression analyses)

	Patient delay		Health-system delay
Variable	Coefficient	SD	Coefficient	SD
Number of household members	0.22*	0.09
Social stigma (>2.3)^a	3.19**	1.06	−2.06*	0.93
Chest pain	4.48***	1.11
Initially sought alternative^b services	5.93**	1.95
Visited private health facility first time	7.16***	1.72
Longer time to reach private health facility^c	2.30**	0.72	1.65*	0.63
Number of visits to HCPs before tuberculosis diagnosis			0.97***	0.15
N (model p value, adjusted R²)	90 (<0.001, 0.54)		88 (<0.001, 0.38)

All variables except for ethnicity and residence were included in the models. Household size, age, and tuberculosis knowledge were treated as continuous variables. Square root transformation was performed for patient- and health-system- delays
HCP health-care provider, N number of study subjects
* p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
^aSocial-stigma: rows mean score of 9-item scale (high: score higher than median (2.3); low: score lower than the median)
^bAlternative services include: self-treatment with herbs or drugs; obtaining of drugs from pharmacy or drug store; visiting traditional health provider; and visiting community health worker
^cLonger than 30 min time to reach the nearest private health facility

ISSN: 1347-4715