Effect of decentralising childhood tuberculosis diagnosis to primary health centre versus district hospital levels on disease detection in children from six high tuberculosis incidence countries: an operational research, pre-post intervention study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Childhood tuberculosis (TB) remains underdiagnosed largely because of limited awareness and poor access to all or any of specimen collection, molecular testing, clinical evaluation, and chest radiography at low levels of care. Decentralising childhood TB diagnostics to district hospitals (DH) and primary health centres (PHC) could improve case detection.

Methods

We conducted an operational research study using a pre-post intervention cross-sectional study design in 12 DHs and 47 PHCs of 12 districts across Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The intervention included 1) a comprehensive diagnosis package at patient-level with tuberculosis screening for all sick children and young adolescents <15 years, and clinical evaluation, Xp

SUBMITTER: Wobudeya E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11056389 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature