Exploring Community Participation in Prevention and Care of Tuberculosis from Patients’, Healthcare Providers’ and Community Member’s Perspective, In Wolayta Zone, SNNPR, Ethiopia. A Qualitative Study

Background: In developing countries, tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the major cause of morbidity and mortality. To reduce the loss of lives and economical burden that TB poses up on citizens, early case detection and successful treatment of infected cases are very essential mainly with active community participation in prevention and care of TB. This study was aimed to explore community participation in prevention and care of TB in Wolayta Zone of SNNPR, Ethiopia. Method: Descriptive phenomenological research methodology was employed in the study. A total 24 participants were chosen using purposive sampling technique. Participants in the study were from various sections of society. Of these, 14 were TB patients on TB treatment and former TB patients who were recovered, 8 were health professionals and 2 were Key Informants which were selected from the community to provide key information. Data were gathered through focus groups and in-depth interviews. Using the Open Code and Colaizi 7 steps of descriptive phenomenological method data analysis  was used. Interviews were audio recorded, verbatim transcribed, translated, and  exhaustive description was written. Results: Community participation in prevention and care of TB in study area was high. Preventive participation and supportive participations were identified and these participations have their own goals in TB prevention and care. Preventive participation has focused on early case finding strategies like referring the suspect cases for TB diagnosis and contact tracing. Supportive participation has focused on treatment success such physical, economical, psychological and social supports which increase the patients adherence to treatment and as result increases treatment success rate. Conclusion. Our study revealed highto moderate  community participation in tuberculosis   prevention and care in the the study area. The finding is that the TB prevention and care strategy for eliminating TB will be operationally effective. In cumulative effect, the region might be able to meet the WHO's recommendations for the community TB prevention and care plan, which call for case notification of more than 70% and an 85% success rate for treatment and all seek to eliminating TB by 2030. Therefore, the study emphasizes the necessity for effective communication to be established between community and the health institutions. To further raise TB notification and treatment success rates, all feasible methods of utilizing community participation in TB care are advised