THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE OF TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS ABOUT DISEASE AND THE SOCIETY'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS TUBERCULOSIS PATIENTS IN TURKEY

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to investigate of patient's knowledge, attitude and behavior about tuberculosis and society's attitude towards tuberculosis patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patients were asked to answer a questionnaire regarding their knowledge about tuberculosis that is composed of 14 questions ( general, infectivity, diagnosis, treatment; 3-3-3-5 questions respectively) in the first hours of their hospitalization and the answers were evaluated. RESULTS: 145 tuberculosis patients ( female/ male, 46/ 99; mean age 35, 6 +/- 13, 7) were enrolled in the study. The ratio of the patients who knew the disease was contagious, transmitted by saliva driblets and tuberculosis vaccine prophylaxis was 84%, 83%, and 95% respectively. Eighty-two percent of patients knew about the tests necessary for the diagnosis correctly. Eighty-one percent of patients knew the tuberculosis treatment would take 6-9 months with four different drugs. In society's attitude questions, 35% patients that declared they were struck professionally by their disease, 37% of patients answered as my relations with my work friends went downhill , 42.9% of patients answered as I was afraid of getting fired, 14.3% of patients answered as I got fired. CONCLUSION: The preliminary information of the participating patients was approved good enough by a total information score of 80.4 +/- 16.1%. Although the patients knowledge level were high, because of problems faced by the society suggests that education should be given more importance.