• Mustafa Hamidullah Türkkani, Tarkan Özdemir, and Çiğdem Özdilekcan.
• Department of Chest Diseases, Dr. Nafiz Körez Sincan State Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
• Turk J Med Sci. 2020 Aug 26; 50 (5): 1371-1379.

Background/AimThis study aimed to analyze delays in diagnosis and treatment by defining the related demographic and clinical factors, to reveal obstacles, and to develop essential attempts to help reduce treatment delays.Materials And MethodsWe created a questionnaire on the subject of delays in diagnosis and treatment in tuberculosis (TB) control to be administered to the patients. The forms were distributed to dispensaries across the country by the General Directorate of Public Health via an official letter.ResultsThe study included 853 new patients with smear-positive pulmonary TB. The mean patient delay was 18.06 ± 22.27 days, the mean diagnosis delay was 35.63 ± 34.86 days, and the mean treatment delay was 0.90 ± 2.39 days. We found no association between sex, age, literacy, residential location, the presence of chronic respiratory diseases, and patient delay. It was determined that patient delay was shorter for patients with hemoptysis, fever, dyspnoea, and chest pain. In women, the diagnosis delay was longer than in men.ConclusionIn the diagnosis process of patients with tuberculosis, it was determined that there was an improvement in the patient delay; however, the improvement in the diagnosis delay was still not acceptable as an ideal duration.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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