Lived Experiences of Medically Admitted Tuberculosis Patients in a Public Hospital and Its Implications for TB Treatment Management and Care: A Narrative Analysis Around the First-Hand Experience in a Tuberculosis Ward.

Abstract

Introduction: Along with bodily suffering, tuberculosis causes various socio-economic problems, including major crises on the personal end. For medically admitted chronic TB patients, a hospital is a place of more than only treatment that over time becomes a living place. The present study explored the individual patients' perspectives on TB treatment.

Methods: The present ethnographic study was undertaken among the admitted tuberculosis patients of both sexes in the 18-70 age group in a referral government TB hospital in Odisha. Thirty selected in-depth interviews and case studies were taken to collect the data.

Results: TB challenges and in several contexts shatters the socio-economic conditions of such patients bringing several crises at the individual and interpersonal levels. The findings of the study suggest that social marginalization, poor socio-economic conditions, loss of livelihood, desertion, and abandonment of women and elderly, gender disparity while seeking health and treatment, gender-based family negligence, stigma, superstitious beliefs, and traditional medicinal practices had heavy bearings in tuberculosis patients' lives.

Conclusion: The present hospital ethnography on TB patients indicates that emphasizing patients' perspectives, provision of socio-psychological support at community and institutional levels in the hospital ward, and addressing tuberculosis-associated concerns have important positive outcomes in patients' lives; it will also have major support in treatment adherence and early recovery by ensuring successful TB management and elimination.