A professor at the National Yang Ming University recently completed a study that found that elderly Taiwanese and Aborigines were most likely to suffer from a delay in tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment.
In a study of 78,118 pulmonary tuberculosis cases from the nation’s tuberculosis reporting system between 2002 and 2006, Pesus Chou (周碧瑟) from the university’s Department of Public Health found that about 24.9 percent of the cases, or 19,413 people, had experienced a diagnosis delay.
TREATMENT DELAY
Up to 20.3 percent of the cases suffered from a treatment delay, she said.
A period of longer than nine days between a medical examination and tuberculosis diagnosis was defined as a diagnosis delay and a period of longer than two days between diagnosis and the beginning of therapy was defined as a treatment delay in the study.
Chou found that the elderly and those who lived with their families were given a delayed diagnosis more often than those who lived alone.
Aborigines and those who lived alone were more likely to suffer from delayed treatment, she said.
The study was recently published in the journal BMC Public Health.
COMPLICATIONS
“Delayed diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis may result in more extensive disease and more complications, which in turn leads to a higher mortality rate,” Chou said.
“Medical resources in Aboriginal areas are relatively deficient. It should also be noted that the mortality rate and incidence of tuberculosis are much greater in Aboriginal communities than in non-Aboriginal communities,” she said.
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