Role of acceptability barriers in delayed diagnosis of Tuberculosis: Literature review from high burden countries

•Health care acceptability barriers leading to TB diagnostic delays.•Expectations: doubts about quality of services and expected burden of stigma.•Attitudes: providers’ discriminative attitudes towards patients’ age, gender, ethnicity.•Health beliefs: lack of faith in diagnostics, hopelessness, disbelief in curability.•Emerging field: substantial dearth and gaps in research literature.

PurposeDirect transmission of mutated tuberculosis (TB) strains is among major contributors to the worldwide epidemic of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. Expanding access to TB-services and decreasing diagnostic delays are acknowledged as potential solutions. We aimed to summarize evidence about links between health care acceptability barriers and TB diagnostic delays. Scoping and systematic review approaches were combined to determine the depth/breadth of the literature, identify gaps, and synthesize findings.MethodsElectronic data-bases, key journals, other relevant electronic sources, and references of relevant articles were selected as potential sources through a preliminary search and expertś advice. Titles and abstracts of 4046 initial records and 1796 references were screened against preliminarily developed and post-hoc inclusion/exclusion criteria. Author, year of publication, study location, study aims, overview of methods, study population, intervention type, outcomes measures and results of each included paper were extracted. Methodological quality of studies was assessed. Narrative synthesis of the study results was conducted through the thematic analysis approach.ResultsPatients’ negative expectations, doubts about quality of services/medications and burden of stigma, as well as providers’ discriminative attitudes towards patients’ characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity) were reported as major barriers. Scarcity and unequal distribution of the literature and lack of attention to all potential acceptability barriers were found as major gaps in the current research.ConclusionOverall, study findings indicate the significance of acceptability barriers’ role in TB diagnostic delays. Emerging character of the field is demonstrated. Recommendations about further research directions are outlined.

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