2025/06/26 by Alvin Kuo Jing Teo, Khanh Boi Luu, Frances Garden +7 · 1 citation
Medicine · #Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology
paper · doi:10.1183/13993003.02521-2024
openalex publication_date 2025/06/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
<title>Extract</title> A high proportion of people screened for tuberculosis (TB) in the community lack typical symptoms [1]. However, many TB screening programs rely upon symptoms as an initial precursor to subsequent diagnostic testing [2]. This approach can delay diagnosis for people with early TB, resulting in adverse outcomes due to disease progression. Furthermore, data from prevalence surveys and mathematical models have suggested that individuals with bacteriologically confirmed asymptomatic TB may contribute to M. tuberculosis transmission [3, 4]. Symptoms are subjective and susceptible to recall bias; individuals may describe symptoms differently after learning their diagnosis. The timing of symptom questionnaire relative to the diagnosis may affect the propensity of respondents to report symptoms [5, 6]. This study evaluated the difference in self-reported symptoms pre-and-post TB diagnosis and how self-reported symptoms related to disease severity measures.