Factors related to pulmonary tuberculosis in risk group of population Lampang province

Abstract

This quantitative research aimed to investigate the factors related to pulmonary tuberculosis in risk group of population in Lampang province from budget year 2016 – 2018. Participants were 1,726 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis patients registered with public hospitals under the Ministry of Public Health in Lampang province. Data were collected by medical records from the hospital database which was approved by Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) with 0.67-1.00. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics in terms of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and Chi - square. The results found that:

Most of the participants were males (73.70%), over 55 years old (55.80%), having the average age of 57 years, and having the average body weight of 49 kg and the average BMI of 18.89. They had their underlying diseases of diabetes mellitus (12.50%), hypertension (7.10%) and HIV infection (6.70%). They were new patient type of pulmonary tuberculosis (94.70%) and Thai people (94.80%), and also worked as the employees (30.90%). They also had their underlying disease risks to pulmonary tuberculosis (45.80%). There were factors significantly related to pulmonary tuberculosis including Body Mass Index (BMI) and prisoner status with p-value at 0.05 and 0.001 respectively.

          It could be suggested that medical personnel and related organizations should concern about the people at risk or patients who have decreasing their body weight and BMI with signs and symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis such as having chronic cough for more than 2 weeks, blood in sputum, chest pain and low fever in the evening until midnight. These people should be treated as urgent for relieving their symptoms from severity and death rate of pulmonary tuberculosis.