Table 2.

Characteristics of included studies.

First author   Year	Country WHO regiona	Number of participants	Percentage of females	Participant characteristics	Research setting	Data collection methods	Type of barrier reported
Atre 2011 [24]	India SEARO	160	50	Community members	Rural	Interviews	Individual-level
Deribew 2010 [27]	Ethiopia AFRO	750	58	Community members	Rural and urban	Questionnaires; FGDs	Individual-level
Mavhu 2010 [42]	Zimbabwe AFRO	40	45	Community members	Urban	Interviews; FGDs	Individual-level
Onifade 2010 [20]	Peru AMRO	53	NR	TB patients; health workers	Urban	Interviews; FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Rundi 2010 [34]	Malaysia WPRO	58	53	TB patients; family members; health workers	Rural	Interviews	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Skordis-Worrall 2010 [44]	South Africa AFRO	8 FGD 6–8 each	NR	TB patients; community members	Urban	FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Gosoniu 2008 [28]	Bangladesh, India, Malawi SEARO, AFRO	329	49	TB patients	Rural and urban	Interviews	Individual-level
Jaggarajamma 2008 [29]	India SEARO	276	31	TB patients	Rural and urban	Interviews; FGDs	Individual-level
Somma 2008 [35]	Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Colombia SEARO, AMRO	400	50	TB patients	Rural and urban	Interviews	Individual-level
Weiss 2008 [39]	Bangladesh, India, Malawi SEARO, AFRO	329	49	TB patients	Rural and urban	Interviews	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Baral 2007 [26]	Nepal SEARO	34	NR	TB patients; family members; community members	Kathmandu Valley	Interviews	Individual-level
Ganapathy 2008 [41]	India SEARO	16 FGD	NR	Community members	Urban	FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Karim 2007 [31]	Bangladesh SEARO	102	49	TB patients	Rural	Interviews	Individual-level
Yan 2007 [37]	China WPRO	16–22 FGD 82 interviews	NR	TB patients; community members	Rural	Questionnaires; interviews; FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Zhang 2007 [23]	China WPRO	714	50	Rural farmers	Rural	FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Fochsen 2006 [40]	India SEARO	22	23	Health care providers	Rural and urban	Interviews	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Atre 2004 [25]	India SEARO	160	50	Community members	Rural	Interviews	Individual-level
Eastwood 2004 [19]	The Gambia AFRO	45	40	TB patients; health workers	Medical unit	Questionnaires; FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Rodríguez-Reimann 2004 [43]	USA AMRO	166	53	Community members w/TB positive family member	Urban	Questionnaires	Individual-level
Sanou 2004 [21]	Burkina Faso AFRO	28 FGD 8–12 each 68 interviews	NR	TB patients; non-TB patients; community members; traditional healers	Rural and urban	Interviews; FGDs	Individual-level
Thorson 2004 [22]	Vietnam WPRO	5 FGD 7-8 each 3 interviews	33	Physicians	General hospital; TB units	Interviews; FGDs	Individual-level
Xu 2004 [36]	China WPRO	16 FGD	31	TB patients; health workers; health providers	Rural	FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Long 2001 [32]	Vietnam WPRO	16 FGD 8–10 each	NR	TB patients; non-TB patients	Rural and urban	FGDs	Individual-level
Johansson 2000 [30]	Vietnam WPRO	4 FGD 8–10 each	NR	TB patients; community members	Rural and urban	FGDs	Individual-level Provider-/system-level
Ngamvithayapong 2000 [33]	Thailand WPRO	85	33	Community members; healthcare staff	Rural and urban	FGDs	Individual-level
Long 1999 [38]	Vietnam WPRO	16 FGD 8–10 each	NR	TB patients; non-TB patients	Rural and urban	FGDs	Individual-level
Rajeswari 1999 [17]	India SEARO	304	39	TB patients; non-TB patients	Rural and urban	Interviews; FGDs	Individual-level
Liefooghe 1995 [18]	Pakistan SEARO	48	50	TB patients	Mission hospital	FGDs	Individual-level

FGD: focus group discussion; NR: not reported; TB: tuberculosis; WHO: World Health Organization.

^aWHO regions: AFRO (African Region), AMRO (Americas Region), SEARO (Southeast Asian Region), and WPRO (Western Pacific Region).