Pulmonary Tuberculosis Suspects and Their Determinants among Boarding Students in Islamic Boarding Schools in the Garut District

Living in a crowded Islamic boarding school (pondok pesantren) may cause tuberculosis (TB) transmission, poor sanitation and personal hygiene presenting risks for residents' health. Sleeping together in a small room may increase the risk of TB transmission in the pondok pesantren. The objective of this study is to assess TB suspects and their determinants among boarding students at Islamic boarding schools in Garut. A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. Applying two stages of cluster sampling, 429 samples were selected from six Islamic boarding schools in the Garut District. Data was collected through interviews, using a questionnaire that was pre-tested for validity and reliability, and analyzed using a multiple logistic regression technique. This study determined that almost 22% of the boarding students, commonly known as santri, had been suffering from a cough for at least 2 weeks (TB suspects). Half of them (50.8%) are women, living in environments prone to TB transmission (62.5%), having low levels of knowledge of TB (70.6%), exhibiting poor TB prevention behavior (52.7%), and around 37% are smokers. The analysis proves that sex and smoking habits are associated with TB suspects. Smoking habits are the most dominant risk factor for TB suspects after controlling for knowledge of TB. The risk of smoking santris becoming a TB suspect is 2.7 times higher than for those who do not smoke, after controlling for knowledge of TB.