Vol. 8, Issue 5 (2019)

Background: India is the home of largest number of tuberculosis patients as mentioned in global tuberculosis report 2016. A study was conducted to assess the knowledge regarding tuberculosis with the objectives of assessment of knowledge regarding tuberculosis among adults residing in urban and rural areas of Pune district and to associate the findings with selected demographic variables.

Methods: A nonexperimental descriptive study was carried out to assess the knowledge regarding tuberculosis among adults residing in selected urban and rural areas of Pune district. Data was collected from 200 adults residing in Pune district. Purposive sampling technique was used to identify 200 adults living in Pune district using a questionnaire having 10 questions in areas of knowledge regarding tuberculosis about organs affected, transmission, sources, symptoms, treatment and prevention. Analysis of data was done using descriptive statistics frequency (mean, standard deviation, item wise analysis).

Results: It revealed that overall 82% had good knowledge regarding tuberculosis among adults. Item wise analysis showed that 83% of participants had knowledge about source of infection and treatment modality of tuberculosis, only 15% of participants had knowledge about prevention among adults living in urban areas. About 82% of participants had knowledge about commonly affected organs in tuberculosis, and 26% knew about the prevention of tuberculosis among adults residing in rural areas of Pune district.

Conclusions: The study concludes that adequate knowledge regarding tuberculosis is highly observed among adults. As the people has inadequate knowledge regarding prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, health education should be provided to enhance their knowledge and prevent from high mortality rate every year.