More than 7,500 residents of Bandung, a city of 2.6 million people, were identified as having tuberculosis in 2018. Our previous research demonstrated that at least half of the people with pulmonary tuberculosis did not seek care from qualified healthcare providers until after being sick for four weeks and treatment was not started until three weeks later.
Photovoice is a participatory research approach in which participants use a camera to take photos and provide meaning to the photos through a facilitated discussion. This project aims to use photovoice to raise public awareness about the community and health system barriers to timely diagnosis and treatment for tuberculosis, as well as barriers to treatment completion.
15 former TB patients (7 had drug-resistant, 6 had drug-sensitive pulmonary, and 2 had extrapulmonary TB) and 5 healthcare workers participated.
The data collection was conducted from November 2019 to January 2020.
Out of 362 submitted photos, 87 photos were discussed in 6 biweekly meetings with every group, contextualized, and captioned. Discussion processes were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using standard thematic analysis. Themes that emerged from photo discussions were barriers and problems related to treatment, including the social, demographic, economic, and psychological aspects of TB treatment, and TB-related health services, as well as facilitators to treatment success such as treatment supporting systems, positive activities, and post-recovery experiences.
81 photos and captions were published on Instagram and Facebook from November 2019 to January 2021 and shown in a public exhibition.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the public exhibition occurred virtually launching on 24th March 2021, to coincide with World TB Day. In addition, in January 2021, we also held a talk show entitled “The Role of Advocacy in Tuberculosis Control: Experience from Photovoice Project.”
