A study of the socio-demographic profile and treatment outcome of paediatric tuberculosis patients in Bangalore Mahanagar Palike area

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be one of the most devastating and widespread infections in the world. Of the nine million annual tuberculosis cases, about one million (11%) occur in children (under 15 years of age). Childhood tuberculosis is a neglected aspect of the tuberculosis epidemic. Objectives: To know the socio-demographic profile, type of tuberculosis and treatment outcome in paediatric tuberculosis patients Methodology: The study was conducted in nine Tuberculosis units of Bangalore city from January 2009 to December 2009. Five Tuberculosis units from the nine tuberculosis units were selected by simple random sampling, paediatric patients diagnosed as having TB and registered under RNTCP were included in the study till the sample size of 209 was reached. Data regarding socio-demographic profile and type of TB was collected and the patients were followed up to assess treatment outcome. Results: Most of the patients coming to the RNTCP centres belong to the under-privileged group. Most of the patients were in the age group of 1 to <6 years, (37.7 %), male to female ratio was observed to be 0.6:1. Majority of the patients lived in nuclear families (73.2%), belonged to low socio-economic status (95.5%) and dwelled in overcrowded houses (89.5%). 23% reported history of contact with tuberculosis patients. More than half of the patients (57.4%) were undernurished. In the study, 56.5% had pulmonary TB and 43.5 % had extra-pulmonary TB. 94.7% of the patients completed treatment. Conclusion: Paediatric tuberculosis still continues to be a major problem in one-five years of age who are undernourished and belonging to low socio-economic status.