Effect of Integrating Traditional Tuberculosis Care With Modern Health Care on Case Detection, Cost, and Client Satisfaction in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Detailed Summary

Although many interventions are implemented to increase TB case detection, decrease diagnosis delay, and avoid catastrophic costs, there are no significant changes and the end TB goal will not be achieved in 2035. Innovative intervention that considers indigenous knowledge and unique culture and religious perspectives because many people go to traditional healers and holy water for healing. Therefore, integrating traditional tuberculosis care with modern care increase case detection, decrease diagnosis delay, and avoid catastrophic costs. There is no literature clearly defining integrating traditional TB care with modern care, but for the purpose of this study, integrating traditional care with modern care is defined as the collaboration of two systems through referral linkage. TB screening and diagnosis services will be done collaboratively in traditional and modern care services. A referral linkage model will be used to detect TB cases in both traditional and modern care services. Health care providers, traditional healers, priests, pastors, and imams will participate in the integration process. TB detection or diagnosis services will be integrated through referral linkage and strengthening capacity-building strategies. Traditional care centers and modern health care services will work collaboratively to improve TB case detection, reduce care costs, and avoid diagnosis delays. The standardized operational procedure of the full interventional package is described below. There are four steps of the intervention phases. These are the preliminary phase, preparation for implementation and refinement on a small scale phase, administering the intervention, and end-line assessment of outcomes. The intervention will be providing training for traditional and modern care practitioners, patient education, TB screening, and bidirectional referral linkage. This study hypothesized that integrating traditional care with modern care at the primary care level will increase the TB case detection rate by fifteen percentage points. Integrating traditional care with modern care at the primary care level will decrease TB diagnosis delay by fifteen percentage points. Integrating traditional care with modern care at the primary care level also will decrease the cost of TB care by 15 percentages of points

Study Details

Timeline

Interventions