Abstract
OBJECTIVES: to analyze the association between community health workers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding respiratory symptomatic patient detection in Primary Health Care. METHODS: a cross-sectional study conducted in Family Health Units in Santa Izabel do Pará, Brazil, with a census sample of 129 community health workers. A questionnaire based on the Advocacy, Communication, and Social Mobilization for TB Control guide was used to survey knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used, with a 95% significance level (p≤0.05). RESULTS: the predominant participants were female (n=96/74.4%), aged 40-49 years (n=54/41.9%), with complete high school education (n=86/66.7%), Catholic (n=65/50.4%), brown skin color/race (n=109/84.5%), and 20 years of experience (n=55/42.6%). Associations between knowledge and attitudes (p=0.2582) and between knowledge and practices (p=0.8973) were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: workers' attitudes and practices in the search for respiratory symptomatic patients were not determined by their level of knowledge about tuberculosis.