O B J E C T I V E S : To develop locally appropriate measures of poverty for the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP), Malawi, and to assess access to tuberculosis (TB) services by different socio-economic groups by establish- ing a socio-economic profile of current TB patients
D E S I G N : A quantitative proxy measure of poverty was developed through regression analysis of data from the 1998 national Malawi Integrated Household Survey. A qualitative assessment of poverty was conducted in poor and non-poor settlements in urban Lilongwe to identify key indicators of socio-economic status. Both quantitative and qualitative indicators were used to assess the socio- economic status of 179 TB patients who participated in a cross-sectional survey.
FINDINGS: The proxy measure of poverty and the qual- itative indicators demonstrated similar ability to measure the poverty status of patients. The poverty head count among patients using the quantitative and qualitative indicators were 78% and 70%, respectively. Geograph- ical analysis showed that 60% were from non-poor areas and only 15% (26/139) were from squatter settlements. CONCLUSION: This study established a strategy for mon- itoring access to TB services using a proxy measure of pov- erty and qualitative indicators. This is a vital first step in developing an evidence base for pro-poor equitable TB services.