Influence factors to treatment and management of pulmonary tuberculosis in floating population in Ruian city, Zhejiang province

Objective To explore the influence factors to the treatment and management of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in floating population in Ruian, provide evidence for the development of prevention and control strategies and improve cure rate. Methods Totally 304 TB patients newly diagnosed in floating population from 2007 to 2008 were selected as case group and 301 TB patients newly diagnosed in local population during the same period were selected as control group. The data about diagnosis delay, symptoms before treatment, lung imageology, sputum smear, treatment and outcome were collected among them to analyze the influence factors to the treatment and management of TB cases in floating population. Results There was no significant difference on the gender distributions of the TB cases between floating population and local population, but the differences on age, diagnosis delays, symptoms before treatment, lung imageology, sputum smear, treatment and outcome were significant (P0.05). Conclusion The analysis indicated that most TB patients in floating population were young adults, they had longer diagnosis delay, more severe symptom, more irregular treatment and worse outcome compared the TB cases in local population. It is necessary to strengthen the management of TB cases in the floating population in Ruian.