BACKGROUND: For decades, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases like human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome, leprosy, etc., have been associated with stigma and discrimination by the society; this can interfere with the lifestyle and disease management among these patients.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the stigma experienced by tuberculosis patients and to find the factors associated with stigma.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 209 sputum-positive and sputum-negative tuberculosis patients. Convenient sampling was used to identify the patients. A predesigned, pretested proforma from Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue developed by World Health Organization was used for data collection.
RESULTS: The study revealed that out of 209 respondents, 51.2% of the respondents experienced some form of stigma. Majority of the patients have received only primary education and 71.3% of the respondents were males. Most of the patients were under category 1 of Directly Observed Treatment Short course. Age, education, and smear status of the patient were found to be associated with stigmatization (P<0.05), whereas factors like gender, income, occupation, family history, and marital status were found to be not significantly associated with stigmatization.
CONCLUSION: Effective counseling measures are recommended for tuberculosis patients with advancing age and education which can help reduce stigmatization and thereby improve quality of life.
}, year = {2017}, journal = {The Indian journal of tuberculosis}, volume = {64}, pages = {323-326}, issn = {0019-5707}, doi = {10.1016/j.ijtb.2016.10.002}, language = {eng}, }