Fig 2. Distribution of aggregate practitioner-reported adherence scores to ten of the International Standards for TB Care by practitioner training in the private sector in Chennai.

Practitioner-reported practices were evaluated against 10 of the International Standards for TB Care (ISTC) for which comparative data were collected, and an ISTC score was calculated by summing the total number of standards for which reported practices agreed with ISTC recommendations. For example, a score of seven means the corresponding practitioner reported practices in accordance with seven of the 10 standards that we evaluated. Of 10 standards evaluated, the overall median ISTC adherence score was 4.0 (IQR 3.0–6.0). Chest physicians reported greater adherence than other MD/MS practitioners with higher levels of training (median 7.0 vs. 4.0, P<0.001), or MBBS practitioners (7.0 vs. 4.0, P<0.001). Box plots depict the median (central line), interquartile range (box), and range (whiskers).