Table 1.

Patient, health service and total delays in published studies and current study

Reference	Definitions used			Prevalence of delay	Median/mean total delay
	Patient delay	Health service/facility delay	Total delay = Patient + health facility delay
Kiwuwa et al. (2005) Uganda [5]	- The time interval between symptom onset and the first medical consultation.	- The time taken from the first medical consultation to when the diagnosis was confirmed and treatment started.	- > 4 weeks was considered as prolonged/ unacceptable total delay.	- Patient delay: not specified	-Median: 12 weeks, IQR not specified
				- Health service delay: 74%
	- A health provider was defined as any person consulted by the patient about his/her sickness, who prescribed any form of medication. These included dispensers, pharmacists, medical staff and herbalists or traditional healers.			- Total delay: 91%
		- Health service delay was when there was a delay of > 4 weeks between the initial contact with the health provider and the start of TB treatment.
	- Interval of > 2 weeks was considered as long patient delay.
Ngadaya et al. (2009) [6] Tanzania.	- The time interval between the day of experiencing for the first time one of the pulmonary symptoms to the day the patient sought medical advice for the first time.	- A time interval between first consultations at a health facility to the day the treatment was initiated.	- The sum of the patient and health facility delay.	- Health facility: 59%.	- Mean: 125.5 (SD98.5) days
				- Patient and total delay not specified.
					- Median: 90 days, IQR not specified
			- A time interval > 35 days.
	- Interval of > 30 days was considered as patient delay.	- A time interval of > 5 days was considered as health facility delay
Basnet et al. (2009) Nepal [16]	- The time interval from the appearance of the first symptoms of tuberculosis until the first visit to any formal health care facility (health centres, hospitals or DOTS centres).	- The time interval from the first consultation at any formal health facility until the date of diagnosis.		Not specified.	- Median: 60 days, IQR not specified
Sendagire et al. (2010) [7]	- The time in weeks from the onset of cough to a first consultation with any health care provider.	- The time in weeks from the first consultation to initiation of treatment.	- Prolonged total delay was defined as a delay of > 14 weeks.	- Prolonged patient delay: 19%	-Median: 8 (IQR 4-12) weeks
				- Prolonged health service delay: 29%
	- Prolonged patient delay was defined as a delay of > 8 weeks.
		- Prolonged heath facility was defined as a delay of > 6 weeks.
				- Prolonged total delay: 24.1%
Current study	-The time interval in weeks between onset of cough and the first consultation with any health care provider (dispensers, pharmacists, medical staff and herbalists/traditional healers).	-The time in weeks from the first consultation to the initiation of the TB treatment.	Unacceptable total delay was defined as > 4 weeks.	- Unacceptable patient delay: 58%	- Median total delay of 16 (IQR 9-30) weeks
				Unacceptable health service delay: 89%
				- Total delay: 91%
		- Unacceptable health service delay was defined as a delay of more than 1 week.
	- Unacceptable patient delay was defined as a delay of more than 3 weeks since the onset of cough.

≠IQR = Interquartile range.

*SD = Standard deviation.