An investigation of the accuracy of the home address given by patients in an urban community in South India

Krishnaswami, K V and Satagopan, M C and Somasundaram, P R and Tripathy, S P and Radhakrishna, S and Fox, Wallace (1979) An investigation of the accuracy of the home address given by patients in an urban community in South India. Tubercle, 60 (1). pp. 1-11. ISSN 0041-3879

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Abstract

Studies were undertaken in three tuberculosis clinics in Madras, a large Indian city with a good civic organization, to assess the accuracy of address recorded routinely by registry clerks at the patient’s first clinic attendance. The accuracy was poor, with 20 % to 30 % of the letters posted not reaching the patients. It was appreciably improved, by 10 % to 20 %, by supplementing the clerk’s efforts with questioning by a motivated, experienced health visitor. An address card, a card on which the patient’s address was recorded by the local postman or a literate neighbour, relative or friend, was returned by 90 % to 94 % of the patients, and the accuracy of addresses was found to be at least as good as that obtained with the health visitor. Even when all three sources of information were considered, the patient’s home could not be traced in 3 % of cases and was found with difficulty in 4 %.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Tuberculosis > Biostatistics
Divisions:	Statistics
Depositing User:	Dr. Rathinasabapati R
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2013 10:22
Last Modified:	11 Mar 2016 04:53
URI:	http://eprints.nirt.res.in/id/eprint/137

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