Objective:
Analyze the barriers the families face in the treatment of latent TB infection (LTBI) in children.
Methods:
Descriptive study, in two stages. In the first, the medical records of 0 to 11 year-old children treated for LTBI at a municipal healthcare center in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were analyzed. At the second, an interview with the families. In both stages, the personal, family, economic, social and healthcare service barriers were identified.
Results:
In the first stage; there were barriers in (47/228): the service - 4 (8.5%); personal - 4 (8.5%); family - 21 (44.7%); physiological - 12 (25.5%). At the second; the barriers at (50/85): economical - 19 (38%); social - 13 (26%); personal and family - 18(36%).
Conclusion:
Unfavorable socioeconomic factors affected the care of child in both stages of study. Rethinking the way of dealing with the social determinants associated with tuberculosis may be the way to avoid abandonment and the disruption of LTBI treatment.
Tuberculosis; Latent tuberculosis; Child; Primary Health Care; Public Health
