Skip to main content

Table 1 Patients’ characteristics

From: Delayed diagnosis and associated factors among new pulmonary tuberculosis patients diagnosed at the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital in Porto Alegre, South Brazil: a prospective patient recruitment study

Characteristics

n = 153

Age, years (mean ± SD)

42.6 ± 15.7

Male sex, n (%)

90 (58.8)

White race, n (%)

88 (57.5)

< 8 years schooling, n (%)

81 (52.9)

Literate, n (%)

141 (92.2)

Living alone, n (%)

30 (19.6)

Belief in a religion, n (%)

126 (82.4)

Monthly household income < 1 standard minimum wage*, n (%)

51 (33.3)

Living in Porto Alegre, n (%)

101 (66.0)

Institutionalization, n (%)

23 (15)

Smoking habit, n (%)

 

Never smoker

55 (35.9)

Current smoker

42 (27.5)

Former smoker

56 (36.6)

Alcoholism, n (%)

53 (34.6)

Drug use, n (%)

50 (32.7)

Marijuana, n (%)

29 (19.0)

Cocaine use, n (%)

27 (17.6)

Crack use, n (%)

35 (22.9)

HIV positive, n (%)

77 (51.1)

Non-HIV immunosuppression, n (%)

22 (14.4)

Sought care elsewhere before hospitalization, n (%)

113 (73.9)

Forms of TB, n (%)

 

Pulmonary TB

127 (83.0)

Milliary TB

19 (12.4)

Pleuropulmonary TB

7 (4.6)

Total time until diagnosis (days), median (IR)

60.0 (30.0-90.5)

Patient delay (days), median (IR)

30.0 (7.0-60.0)

Health care system delay (days), median (IR)

18.0 (9.0-39.5)

  1. TB = Tuberculosis; SD = Standard deviation, n = Number of cases, HIV = Human immunodeficiency virus, IR = Interquartile range.
  2. *Approximately U$ 312 (2013).