Find in Library

Objective: To determine the gender differences in smear positive subjects for Tuberculosis presenting to atertiary care chest disease hospital from urban population of Sindh province. Methods: Laboratory records of Provincial Reference Laboratory at Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases wereretrospectively examined for the year 2013. Z-test for proportions was performed using Social ScienceStatistics© Calculator, while Odds ratio and Relative risk were calculated using online calculator availableat Vassar Statistics©. Results: A total of 3006 suspects were screened over the period of twelve months in 2013 including 1766males (58.75%) and 1240 females (41.25%). Of these, 452 males (25.59%) and 381 females (30.72%) weretested positives. There was a statistically significant (p-value = 0.01174) difference in the proportion of testpositives among males and females. Male suspects outnumbered females by 1.42:1, however amongst theconfirmed TB cases, this ratio reduced to 1.18:1. Odds ratio (OR) for smear positivity amongst males was0.77, (95% CI 0.66-0.91) with a significantly lower odds (p-value <0.01) among males compared with females. Conclusions: The proportion of smear positivity in females exceeded that of males despite the fact that fewerfemales were screened for tuberculosis as compared to males. This may be suggestive of that we are onlylooking at the tip of the iceberg and a large number of undetected cases is present in females. This observationhighlights the significance of prompt identification of active cases among the female population in Karachi.It is therefore suggested that efforts must be directed to active case finding in female population in the Karachi.It is important that efforts must be directed to active case finding in female population in the Karachi population.