House-hold contact tuberculosis screening adherence and associated factors among tuberculosis patients attending at health facilities in Gondar town, northwest, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Contacting patients with tuberculosis have a substantial risk of developing the disease. Household contact screening has recently been recommended as a strategy to enhance case detection in high-burden countries. But there is no enough information in Gondar town regarding household contact screening practice among TB patients. METHODS: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1 to 30, 2019 on 404 tuberculosis patients attending at health facilities in Gondar Town. Epi-Info version 7 for data entry and SPSS version 20 for data analysis were used. Descriptive statistics were carried out to illustrate the means, standard deviations, and frequencies. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify significantly associated variables with the dependent variable. RESULTS: From 412 study populations, 404 were completed the study with 98.06% response rate. The overall household contact TB screening adherence was 47.5% (95% CI: 43.1, 52.5). In the multivariable analysis, having certificate and above educational level (AOR = 2.83, 95% CI:1.40,5.67), having sufficient knowledge about TB (AOR = 8.26, 95% CI:4.34,15.71), being satisfied with health care service (AOR = 3.26, 95% CI:1.58,6.76), health education given by health care workers (AOR = 2.60, 95% CI:1.54,4.40),and having HIV/AIDS co-infection (AOR = 3.54, 95% CI:1.70,7.39), were factors associated with household contact TB screening adherence. CONCLUSION: Compared to other previous studies, the current finding was high but it was low as compared with WHO and Ethiopian Ministry of Health recommendations (all persons having TB contact should be screened). Educational status, knowledge on TB, satisfaction with delivered health care service, health education given by HCWs about TB and HIV/AIDS co-infection were factors associated with household contact TB screening practice. Thus, strengthening household TB contact screening and educational programs regarding the risk of getting TB infection from household contacts is crucial.