Knowledge and Practice of Informal Religious Leaders in Referring Tuberculosis Suspects to Visit Public Health Center

Abstract

A majority of TB cases in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province were found in Kupang City. This study aims to identify the influence of informal religious leaders (IRL) in finding and referring TB suspects. The research was a quasi-experimental one-group design with pre-test and post-test consisting of 2 stages. In stage 1, the intervention was a training given to religious leaders to increase the knowledge and practice of TB-case finding, and support for the referral of TB suspects using t-test. In stage 2, the effect of IRL support in identifying and assisting suspects to examine sputum; the effect was analyzed descriptively. The study population included all informal religious leaders living at the study site. The results found a significant increase in the mean value before and after training on the knowledge variable (48.85; 88.48; p = 0.001) and the variable of TB suspect referral support (39.93; 89.19; p = 0.001). The result also showed an increase in TB case visits to Public Health Care (PHC) before and after IRL support was given with the total of 30 and 77 people respectively. In conclusion, the interventions were effective in improving knowledge and support for IRL in referring TB suspects to have health examination at PHC.