SynthesisBMC public health2019
Empirical evidence of delays in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-regression analysis.
Synthesis in BMC public health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Time to diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in indigenous peoples: a systematic review.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Frontline healthcare worker barriers impacting tuberculosis service demand and access in high burden settings: a scoping review.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Predicting Tuberculosis Outcomes Using Routine Surveillance Data in Chiang Mai, Thailand: Retrospective Cohort Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Article
- "Fragmented care pathway in a layered TB care system": a grounded theory approach to understand care pathways and delays in TB care in Odisha.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Rural Residence and One-Person Households Are Associated with Diagnostic Delay in Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Low-Incidence European Setting.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Yield of Tongue Swab- Compared to Sputum-Based Molecular Testing for Tuberculosis in Four High-Burden Countries.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Analysis of medical care seeking delay in pulmonary tuberculosis patients and influencing factors in Chongqing, China.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Analysis of factors influencing patient delay in tuberculosis patients in Northeast China: surveillance data from 2015 to 2024.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Delays in tuberculosis care among the top-ten-tuberculosis-high burden countries in the world: a scoping review.The Journal of the Egyptian Public Health Association · 2026Review
- Tuberculosis Stewardship: Reducing Diagnostic Delay Across the Clinical Spectrum in Low-Incidence Settings.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Tuberculosis Diagnostic Delays in Indonesian Primary Care Pathways.Annals of global health · 2026Observational
- Integrating AI with PCR for Tuberculosis Diagnosis: Evaluating a Deep Learning Model for Chest X-Rays.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A rapid review of the causes of diagnostic and treatment delays for tuberculosis in low-burden countries.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2025Review
- Analysis of factors influencing high infectivity in patients with tuberculosis using clinical and imaging methods.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- The health impact of identifying a person with tuberculosis through systematic screening.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Tongue Swab Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra Testing for Tuberculosis Using a Revised Consensus Protocol: A multi-country diagnostic accuracy study.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Intention to use mobile phone-based TB screening among HIV patients in Debre Tabor Town public health facilities, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- A synthesis of youth activation initiatives and their impact on tuberculosis knowledge, knowledge-seeking, and healthcare-seeking behavior in vulnerable populations.Frontiers in tuberculosis · 2025Article
- Impact of multiple consultations and switching in treatment-seeking in tuberculosis: Mathematical modelling and optimal control.PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDelays in diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis are a major set-back to global tuberculosis control. There is currently no global evidence on the average delays thus, the most important contributor to total delay is unknown. We aimed to estimate average delay measures and to investigate sources for heterogeneity among studies assessing delay measures.
methodsSystematic review of studies reporting mean (± standard deviation) or median (interquartile range, IQR) of patient, doctor, diagnostic, treatment, health system and/or total delays in journal articles indexed in PubMed. We pooled mean delays using random-effects inverse variance meta-analysis, investigated for variations in pooled estimates in subgroup analyses and explored for sources of heterogeneity using pre-specified explanatory variables.
resultsThe systematic review included 198 studies (831,724 patients) from 78 countries. The median number of patients per study was 243 (IQR; 160-458) patients. Overall, the pooled mean total delay was 87.6 (95% CI: 81.4-93.9) days. The most important and largest contributor to total delay was patient delay with a pooled mean delay of 81 (95% CI: 70-92) days followed by doctor's delay and treatment delay with pooled mean delays of 29.5 (95% CI: 25.9-33.0) and 7.9 (95% CI: 6.9-8.9) days respectively. There was considerable heterogeneity in all pooled analyses (I
conclusionStrategies to address patients' delay could have important implications for the success of the global tuberculosis control programmes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.