Open Access“Is there a difference in treatment outcome of tuberculosis patients: Rural Healthcare Providers versus Community Health Workers?”
Author(s) -
Banuru Muralidhara Prasad,
Sarabjit Chadha,
Pruthu Thekkur,
Sashikant Nayak,
Vikas S Rajput,
Rajesh Ranjan,
R. S. Dayal
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of family medicine and primary care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2278-7135
pISSN - 2249-4863
DOI - 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_729_19
Subject(s) - medicine , tuberculosis , community health workers , retrospective cohort study , health care , family medicine , rural community , focus group , cohort , pediatrics , surgery , environmental health , health services , demography , population , business , pathology , marketing , sociology , economic growth , economics
Rural healthcare providers (RHCPs) are the first point of contact for majority of patients in rural parts of India. A total of 75 RHCPs were trained and engaged in Hazaribagh to identify presumptive tuberculosis (TB) patients (PrTBPs) and refer them for diagnosis. Patients diagnosed with TB were initiated on directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) under the programme. Based on patients' choice, the treatment providers were either RHCPs or community health workers (CHWs). In this paper, we aim to compare the treatment outcomes of TB patients who received DOTS from RHCPs with CHWs.