The Incidence of Tuberculosis Among Low Income People

11 Pages 2762 Words

Background

i. Statement of the problem

People in economically disadvantaged positions living in medically under-served communities are at an increased risk for tuberculosis. The disease does continue to be a barometer of poverty and race, but there are other significant factors associated with the incidence of TB. Studies in South Africa suggest that those qualified as black or coloured had significantly less access to health care, and thus stood less chance of being diagnosed than their white counterparts (Andersson 1990). Those in this disadvantaged condition tended to suffer disproportionately from other socio-economic related medical factors, such as malnutrition and incidence of HIV/AIDS that are closely linked with the incidence of TB.
The pattern is similar in other countries, including the USA. The problem in the United States is that there is limited population-based data on TB by social class (Lifson et al. 1999). There is even less data on the incidence of seeking medical care between the onset of symptoms and the visit to a medical center. The incidence of TB is indeed higher among low income people because they are less likely to seek medical care. But the objective of this study is to suggest that there are other critical factors in the complex social dimension of public health problems associated with TB. These will be discussed in parts iii and iv of this section.

ii. Literature review

During the 1980s and 1990s, there have been dramatic transformations in the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the United States (Bloch et al. 1996). As TB morbidity began to increase in 1985, after an all-time U.S. low, a significant number of studies were begun to explain the phenomenon. Some of the conclusions of this study will be based on the extensive current literature attempting to explain this recent increase in TB morbidity. Two of the most important factors have been the available evidence on HIV co-inf...