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Setting: A demographic surveillance site in north-west Vietnam., Objectives: To compare notification rates of sputum smear-positive tuberculosis (TB) and mortality rates between the general population and individuals with prolonged cough., Design: A cohort study of 559 prolonged cough cases in a total population of 35,832, observed over 2.5 years. Outcome measures were sputum smear-positive TB and death., Results: The age-standardised smear-positive TB notification rate among cough cases (553/100,000 person-years [py], 95%CI 268-1143) was significantly higher than in the general population (50/100,000 py, 95%CI 43-57), with a relative risk of 11.06 (95%CI 8.28-14.77). Among those who had a chest X-ray suggestive of TB but negative sputum smears prior to the study start, the rate was 6542/100,000 py (95%CI 2906-12,511). The cough cohort had a 2.61 (95%CI 2.38-2.87) times higher risk of dying than the general population., Conclusions: Individuals with prolonged cough in this study run a significantly increased risk of developing infectious TB and of dying. We recommend further evaluations of improved follow-up systems aimed at identifying and treating sputum smear-negative TB cases before they convert to an infectious stage.

Setting: Tuberculosis (TB) units in 42 districts in north and central Vietnam were included in the study., Objectives: To describe patients' knowledge of TB and to evaluate the impact of the National Tuberculosis Programme's health education., Design: New pulmonary TB patients who had received TB treatment for a minimum of 1 month were interviewed using a structured questionnaire., Results: A total of 364 patients were interviewed; 93% of respondents reported receiving TB information from the health staff. Apart from health education, many patients reported TB information from the TV. This was more common among men than women (71.4% vs. 51.3%). The average knowledge score was 7.07 +/- 2.02 (maxium 10). This was significantly associated with level of education and receiving health education. More than half of the patients expressed fear of being known as TB patients in the community., Conclusions: Knowledge about TB and its treatment was generally high. Marginalised groups with limited access to media and low education levels may benefit from specially targeted educational interventions. To reduce stigma and the impact of social consequences of TB, an ongoing health education programme designed to increase the knowledge level in the whole population appears warranted.

Setting: Epidemiological surveillance in the Bavi district, northern Vietnam., Objective: To compare the prevalences of prolonged cough across socio-economic groups defined by income, expenditure and official classification. To investigate inequalities using the Illness Concentration Index., Design: Interviews in 11,547 randomly selected households with 35,832 persons aged 15 years or more. Prolonged cough was identified in 559 persons (1.5%)., Results: Differences between cough prevalences were found for all socio-economic indicators, but were less clear for expenditure. Lower economic groups reported higher prevalences than higher groups, and prevalences were higher among the elderly. Male was similar to female prevalence. The illness gap between the poor and rich was wider for men. The Illness Concentration Index confirmed these findings., Conclusion: Inequalities were found when using both different socio-economic indicators and different analysis approaches.