Table 2– Characteristics of the included studies and prevalence of inappropriate regimens.

First author [ref.]	Country	Study setting	Period of data collection	Type of HCW	Sample size n
South Asia
Agarwal [23]	India	Conference	2006	National and international orthopaedic faculty and infectious disease experts	52
Roy [24]	India	Municipal area	NR	Qualified private medical practitioners	55
Udwadia [25]	India	Slum	NR	Private medical practitioners	106
Bhalla [26]	India	Medical institute	NR	Residents and faculty members from various departments	40
Rajpal [27]	India	Medical schools	2002	Interns that had gone through their training in various disciplines of medicine	287
Greaves [28]	India	City and surrounding area	2006	Private practitioners	45
Vandan [29]	India	District	2007	Medical physicians (public and private)	141
Datta [30]	India	District	2008	Private allopathic physicians	260
Hurtig [31]	Nepal	Municipality	1998	Licensed allopathic for profit private practitioners which were assumed to see TB patients	43
Shah [32]	Pakistan	Large cities	NR	Formally qualified medical graduates who were practising medicine outside the government sector and who had managed at least one pulmonary TB patient during the previous year	245
Rizvi [33]	Pakistan	City	NR	Family physicians that had no postgraduate qualification and were treating at least 7–10 TB patients per month	150
Khan [21]	Pakistan	Teaching hospitals	NR	Interns	440
Khan [34]	Pakistan	City	2002	Qualified private practitioners	120
Shehzadi [35]	Pakistan	Regions	2003	General practitioners	88
Ahmed [36]	Pakistan	Rural district	2007	Private practitioners with basic medical degree and doing private practice for ≥1 yr	22
East and South East Asia
Bai [20]	China	Medical schools	NR	Final year medical students	439
Mahendradhata [37]	Indonesia	City	2004	Private practitioners	164
Yu [38]	Philippines	Tertiary care hospital	NR	Specialist physicians who dealt with pulmonary TB patients	38
Auer [39]	Philippines	Urban district (Metro Manilla)	1999–2000	Private for-profit practitioners who treat TB	45
Portero [40]	Philippines	Country	2001	Private physicians	1355
South West Asia
Shirzadi [41]	Iran	Large cities	2001–2002	Private sector physicians	732
Hashim [22]	Iraq	Public health centres in the country	2001–2002	HCWs	500
Deveci [42]	Turkey	City	NR	Practising physicians who provide first-line treatment	66
Cirit [43]	Turkey	City	2001	Physicians	208
Africa
Shimeles [44]	Ethiopia	City	2003	Private, for-profit medical doctors	120
Ayaya [45]	Kenya	Cosmopolitan town	NR	Medical doctors practising privately	53
Chakaya [46]	Kenya	Slum	2001	Private HCWs	75
Suleiman [47]	Somalia	Part of country	2001	Qualified medical practitioners (public and private sector)	53
Nshuti [48]	Uganda	Urban district	1999	Doctor or medical assistant from public and private clinics	114
Americas
Dato [49]	Argentina	City	2007	Private doctors: general practitioners, infectious disease specialists and pulmonologists	61
LoBue [50]	USA	County	NR	Physicians who reported a TB suspect or case to the San Diego County Tuberculosis Control for the years 1995–1997	150

HCW: healthcare worker; NR: not reported; TB: tuberculosis.