The problem of refusal from immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis: results of a multi-center sociological study

The objective : to study the reasons for the refusal of legally authorized representatives of children to conduct mass immunodiagnosis of tuberculosis using a representative sample of population and to outline possible ways to change this negative situation. Subjects and methods : A cross-sectional multi-center study was conducted. In 8 regions of the Russian Federation, the survey was conducted in 1,059 legally authorized representatives of children refusing to undergo mass immunodiagnostics of tuberculosis. The following main reasons for refusal were found out: fear of side effects and complications (32.6%), distrust in the quality of the test (29.7%), lack of understanding of the need to examine a child for tuberculosis. 72.2% of respondents demonstrated poor awareness of the problem of tuberculosis – they denied this problem or associated it with a different social environment, which was fertile ground for negative information received through various channels. To solve this problem, it is necessary to intensify health education in various groups of the population, including work with religious communities. Additional resources can be used such as targeted social advertisements, which will allow covering with health education propaganda of 33.1% of people who do not want to receive information about tuberculosis, expanding the regulation for the use of alternative methods of screening for tuberculosis. The authors state that they have no conflict of interests.