Factores de ordem social, económica e cultural da tuberculose em internamento hospitalar

ABSTRACTIn Portugal, the high incidence of Tuberculosis is a serious problem of Public Health and remains an important cause of internment in Pneumology Services all over the country.As the disease is usually connected to poverty, alcoholism and bad nutrition, it's probable that this increase is due to an aggravation of the socio-economics conditions of the families, being also connected to the appearence of the HIV and AIDS, and to the increase of the drugaddicts.We made a rectrospective study of social files of 57 patients, related to 77% of the 74 cases of internment by Tuberculosis in the Pneumology Service of the Saint John Hospital, during the year of 1996.We tried to delineate the social, professional and cultural profile of the population, predominantly of the male sex (80.7%), caucasian race (only 1 case of black race) with the average age of 47.5years. More than 3/4 hardly completed the primary school, 86% belonged to Class IV and V of the Graffar Social Classification, and 2/3 had connection with the specialized and semispecialized working classes.We pointed out the high incidence of alcoholism history (24%), that associated to the drugaddiction and prostitution history constituted about 45% of the associated problems