A cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, preventive behaviour towards Tuberculosis (TB) among patients with TB and their caregivers and readiness for adult TB vaccination among caregivers of patients with TB at selected health centers of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka.

A cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, preventive behaviour towards Tuberculosis (TB) among patients with TB and their caregivers and readiness for adult TB vaccination among caregivers of patients with TB at selected health centre of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka.

The purpose of the study is to understand the knowledge, preventive behaviour towards Tuberculosis (TB) and check the readiness of adult TB vaccination. The responses obtained from the participants will be used in the development of educational material regarding Tuberculosis and its preventive behaviours including adult TB vaccination. It will further help in raising awareness and uptake of the adult TB vaccination among the population, thus reducing TB related morbidity and mortality.

The objectives of the study are to assess the knowledge on tuberculosis among patients with TB and their caregivers by using structured knowledge questionnaire, assess the preventive behaviour towards tuberculosis among patients with TB and their caregivers by using a structured rating scale, determine the readiness for adult TB vaccination among caregivers of TB patients by using readiness Scale, find the association between readiness for adult TB vaccination and selected demographic variables like age, gender, educational level, employment, smoking habit, alcohol consumption, place of residence and received adult vaccinations.

The quantitative research approach with descriptive, cross-sectional study. The research study will be conducted at selected health centres of Udupi Taluk. The population of the study will be the patients with TB and their caregivers of Udupi district. The sample is calculated based on the previous study and the sample size is 188 patients and 188 caregivers.

The inclusion criteria are the patients who had a sputum test or X-ray to confirm their tuberculosis diagnosis during the last six months, who diagnosed with both pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis at healthcare centres, who are taking anti TB medications for last six months, caregivers who provide ongoing care for patients, immediate family members, caregivers who fulfil the criteria of adult TB vaccination as per TB WIN portal, TB positive patients and their caregivers who will be available during the time of data collection, participants who are willing to participate in the study and will sign the written informed consent, participants who can read and write Kannada/English and exclusion criteria are patients who are not registered under the healthcare centres, patients with multidrug- resistance tuberculosis, patients with HIV/TB coinfection condition, TB positive patients and caregivers of them who are aged below 18 years, caregivers age above 70 years, any paid caregiver, and  caregivers who are not living in the same house.

The sample will be selected using purposive sampling technique, and instrument for data collections are demographic & clinical proforma for patient with TB, demographic & clinical proforma for caregivers of patients with TB, Knowledge questionnaire on TB, TB preventive behaviour rating scale for patient with TB, TB preventive behaviour rating scale for caregivers of patients with TB,readiness Scale on Adult TB vaccination.

The Validity of the tools has established by five experts. The pretesting will be conducted among five TB patients with their caregivers of selected healthcare centres. The reliability of the tool will be established by administering to 20 TB patients with their caregivers of selected healthcare centres.

The pilot study will be conducted after obtaining formal permission from Dean and Institute research committee of College of Nursing and District Tuberculosis Control Officer.  The pilot study will be conducted in healthcare center from those fulfilling the inclusive criteria and it will be done through purposive sampling technique. Oral consent will be obtained from each of the TB patients and their care givers

Thedata will be collected after getting approval from ethical institutions. The data will be collected according to the sampling criteria, after obtaining participant’s informed consent and distributing participant information sheet. Data will be collected using self-administered questionnaire.

The data will be analysed using frequency tables and percentages, inferential statistics like ANOVA, Chi square using Jamovi 2.3.28.