Prevalence of Tuberculosis and Associated Socio-economic Determinants among Patients Attending Immanuel General Hospital Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

Tuberculosis is one of the top causes of mortality especially in countries with low socio-economic status. This study was carried out to investigate the prevalence of tuberculosis and associated socio-economic determinants among patients attending Immanuel General Hospital in Eket, Akwa Ibom State. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 patients with presumptive tuberculosis diagnosis within a period of 12 months at Immanuel General Hospital Eket (IGHE). Deep-cough sputum samples were collected from patients who were able to expectorate and processed according to standard bacteriological method. Microscopic detection of acid-fast bacilli was carried out by Zeihl Neelsen method, while Mycobacterium tuberculosis were cultured in Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) medium and colonies identity were further confirmed using SD BIOLINE rapid diagnostic test. Data for the study was collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software version 27. p-value less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Out of 150 sputum samples, 36% were AFB positive while 27.3% were culture-positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Tuberculosis infection rate was higher in males (29.4%) than females (21.9%) and significantly associated with age of patients (P = .02). The study findings also revealed high TB prevalence and risk of infection among the employed patients (P < .001; OR=29.7 at 95% C.I.), and among other socioeconomic risk factors like family size (P = .001), number of people sleeping in a room (P < .001), employment status (P < .001), income level (P = .003), meals per day (P = .001), and previous TB exposure (P < .001) of patients. The prevalence of TB is high in IGHE and is significantly associated with some socioeconomic risk factors. Efforts should be made to reduce TB prevalence by improving the socioeconomic status of people in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.