%0 Journal Article %A Joana Alves %A Denisa Mendonça %A Ana Correia %A Raquel Duarte %T Causes of delay in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis %D 2011 %J European Respiratory Journal %P p2575 %V 38 %N Suppl 55 %X Background: Early diagnosis of tuberculosis and its treatment are essential in a control program, as it reduces the severity, mortality and transmission of the disease in the community.Aim: To determine the time between symptom onset and demand of health services (patient delay) and between first consultation and start of treatment (health care delay). For each interval, determinants of possible delays were analyzed.Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed in Porto (North of Portugal), based on data from the national tuberculosis surveillance system, including confirmed cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed during 2008/2009. We defined 3 weeks for patients' and 1 week for health cares' delays as cut off points to dichotomize the sample into either delay or non delay. Chi-square test were used to analyze associations (α=0.05).Results: We analyzed 165 individuals and of those, 122 (76.5%) were male and the mean age 48 years old. Median patient delay was 4 weeks. Patient delay was more frequently associated (although not statistically significant - p>0.1) with unemployment (68.4% vs 61.4%), alcoholism (76.5% vs 62.7%) and other co-morbidities (72.2% vs 64.9%). The median time of health care delay was 1 week. Negative sputum smear was significantly associated (69.7% vs 34.2% - p=0.001) with this delay.Conclusion: We could not identify target groups significantly associated with patient delay. Strategies should be directed to general population in order to increase awareness about the disease. Negative sputum smear was associated with health care delay which can be justified by the time needed to study these patients. %U