BMC Public Health 2009, 9:53 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/53 Table 1: Health access and health seeking behaviour among pulmonary tuberculosis patients (n = 924) in Ethiopia during 2005–2006. Frequency (%)) 496 (54) 223 (24) 117 (13) 62 (7) 26 (3) 496 (54) 316 (34) 91 (10) 17 (2) 3 (0.3) 100 (11) 231 (25) 593 (64) 469 (51) 455 (49) 594 (64) 210 (23) 42 (5) 78 (8) Variables Treatment sought before the first visit at public health facilities: No prior treatment Holy water Private practitioners Private drug stores/pharmacies Traditional healers The number of visits made at alternative treatment/provider: None One Two Three Four Type of public health facilities visited at first consultation: Clinics Health centres Hospitals One way walking time to health facilities: ≤ 40 minutes (median) > 40 minutes Who made the decision to visit public health facilities? Patients themselves Family members Health workers (private practitioners) Others1 1 Volunteer community health workers, neighbours and friends. those who had completed secondary school [AOR 1.7; 95% CI (1.2 to 2.4); p = 0.004]. Rural patients were more likely to have prolonged delay than urban patients [AOR 1.4; 95% CI (1.1 to 1.9); p = 0.02]. The risk of prolonged delay was significantly higher for sputum smear positive pulmonary patients than sputum smear negative pulmo- nary patients [AOR 1.4; 95% CI (1.1 to 1.9); p = 0.02]. The use of prior treatment with holy water [AOR 3.5; 95% CI (2.4 to 5); p = 0.0001], by private practitioners [AOR 1.7; 95% CI (1.1 to 2.6); p = 0.01] and drug stores [AOR 1.9; 95% CI (1.1 to 3.5); p = 0.002] was significantly associ- ated with prolonged delay. Patients' lack of awareness Sources of alternative treatment Use of alternative treatment: Holy water Private practitioners Private drug stores/pharmacies Traditional healers Sub-total No prior use of alternative treatment Total patient delay Table 2: Sources of patient delays among pulmonary tuberculosis patients (n = 924) in Ethiopia during 2005–2006. N (%) 223(24) 117(13) 62 (7) 26 (3) 428(46) 496(54) 924(100) 92 63 63 65 79 45 60 about the cause of PTB [AOR 1.6; 95% CI (1.1 to 2.7); p = 0.05] or poor perception of the cause of TB such as evil [AOR 2; 95% CI (1.2 to 3.8); p = 0.01] were related a higher risk of prolonged delay. Discussion Our finding shows that patient delay in Ethiopia is longer than the recommended three weeks for detecting a sus- pected TB case [8], with 53% of patients delaying their first consultation at a public health facility for 30 days or more. The median delay among patients who sought treatment from informal sources (31 days) was higher Days of delay Mean Median (25–75 percentiles) 90 (28 – 90) 30 (10 – 60) 30 (14 – 90) 30 (18 – 81) 31 (15 – 90) 15 (7 – 49) 30 (7 – 60) Page 4 of 10 (page number not for citation purposes)