Gender-related factors influencing tuberculosis control in shantytowns: a qualitative study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Angela M Bayer¹  Carolyn M Ford¹  Colleen D Acosta¹  Rosario Sosa²  Marie Haro²  Rosario Montoya²  Jessica Alva²  Jessica Franco²  Enit Valera²  Betty Valiente²  Dami A Onifade³  Carlton A Evans⁴ 

[1] Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Carlos Gonzales 251 Maranga, San Miguel, Lima, Peru;Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Carlos Gonzales 251 Maranga, San Miguel, Lima, Peru;Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo, Departamento de Microbiologia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Facultad de Ciencias y Filosofía, Av. Honorio Delgado #430 - Urb. Ingeniería, San Martin de Porres, Lima, Peru;Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Carlos Gonzales 251 Maranga, San Miguel, Lima, Peru;Wellcome Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine & Dept of Infectious Diseases & Immunity, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, W12 0NN, UK;Asociación Benéfica PRISMA, Carlos Gonzales 251 Maranga, San Miguel, Lima, Peru;Wellcome Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine & Dept of Infectious Diseases & Immunity, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, W12 0NN, UK;Laboratorio de Investigación y Desarrollo, Departamento de Microbiologia, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia Facultad de Ciencias y Filosofía, Av. Honorio Delgado #430 - Urb. Ingeniería, San Martin de Porres, Lima, Peru;

关键词: Tuberculosis;    Gender Role;    Focus Group Discussion;    Tuberculosis Patient;    Healthcare Worker;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-381

 received in 2009-06-16, accepted in 2010-06-29,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere is evidence that female gender is associated with reduced likelihood of tuberculosis diagnosis and successful treatment. This study aimed to characterize gender-related barriers to tuberculosis control in Peruvian shantytowns.MethodsWe investigated attitudes and experiences relating gender to tuberculosis using the grounded theory approach to describe beliefs amongst key tuberculosis control stakeholders. These issues were explored in 22 semi-structured interviews and in four focus group discussions with 26 tuberculosis patients and 17 healthcare workers.ResultsWe found that the tuberculosis program was perceived not to be gender discriminatory and provided equal tuberculosis diagnostic and treatment care to men and women. This contrasted with stereotypical gender roles in the broader community context and a commonly expressed belief amongst patients and healthcare workers that female health inherently has a lower priority than male health. This belief was principally associated with men's predominant role in the household economy and limited employment for women in this setting. Women were also generally reported to experience the adverse psychosocial and economic consequences of tuberculosis diagnosis more than men.ConclusionsThere was a common perception that women's tuberculosis care was of secondary importance to that of men. This reflected societal gender values and occurred despite apparent gender equality in care provision. The greatest opportunities for improving women's access to tuberculosis care appear to be in improving social, political and economic structures, more than tuberculosis program modification.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Onifade et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.