Evidence-based review of the intervention strategies on the TB prevention and treatment among prisoners in China

Objective: To investigate and analyze the past and on-going pro-poor programs related to health equity, and the relevant policies, documents, interventions measures, etc. to improve the China prisoners' accessibility and utilization of tuberculosis (TB) control services in TB control programs, then evaluate their impacts and influences to provide evidences and suggestions for the further work of TB prevention and treatment. Methods: Retrieve published documents about TB prevention and treatment of transient population dating from 1998 to 2008 from MEDLINE, PubMed, CNKI, CBMdisc CDDB and VIP with computers. Simultaneously, a series of interviews was conducted after we got the agreement of the interview people by using non-probability statistics methods. Results: A total of 23 documents were retrieved, and they were consonant with the criteria, among which 8 were published and 5 were policy documents. The study on the second document showed the measures that presently applied on TB patients among prisoners in China: find patients through surveys, inspect every prisons and patients going to visit doctors with symptoms; concerning differences between various groups of prisoners, the measure of "classify and instruction, enroll together and treat" was applied; carry out health education in the prisons and so on. After the implement of various measures, the knowledge awareness, discovery rate, accomplishment ratio, cure rate and so on were all improved. The results of the qualitative interviews showed: the TB patients and the doubts among prisoners could be well gotten together and isolated to receive DOTS; doctors were able to receive trainings on TB treatment and take appointment with certificate. Conclusion: According to the results of qualitative interviews, the published and the secondary documents, it could be seen that DOTS are well implemented with remarkable effects.