Hospitals of initial visit and correct diagnosis rate among TB patients in Shandong province

Objective To examine hospitals of initial visit and correct diagnosis rate and their determinants among pulmonary tuerculosis(TB) patients in Shandong province.Methods The method of stratified-cluster-random sampling was used in this study.Totally 819 TB patients from 6 counties were surveyed with a questionnaire.Results The hospitals visited by the TB patients for the diagnsis of TB symptoms were county hospital(33.0%),village clinic(31.0%),township hospital(17.0%),TB control center(13.1%),and other hospitals(6.0%) and the rate of correct TB diagnosis was 90.7% for TB control center,73.3% for county hospital,65.3% for other hospitals,60.4% for township hospital,and 13.0% for village clinic,respectively.The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the married patients were more likely to choose village clinic as the initial hospital,and the patients with urban medical insurance were more likely to choose TB control center as the initial hospital.Conclusion County hospitals are the hospitals most frequently visited first by TB patients and the TB control center is the institution with the highest correct diagnosis rate of TB.Marital status and medical security types are the determinants for the TB patients in selecting the initial hospital for TB diagnosis.