Abstract: Objective To describe the tendency of delay between onset of clinical symptoms to initiation of standard TB treatment for new smear positive tuberculosis patients in different regions of China in order to provide evidence base for development of relevant TB control and prevention strategies. Methods Typical survey methods were adopted in this research. Three provinces were selected from the eastern, middle and western regions of China respectively. A total of three counties, one in each selected provinces, were selected as study sites. 5066 casebased information of TB patients reported from 2005 to 2009 in the study sites were obtained through national TBspecific report system, meanwhile the information was validated by review of patients’ medical records. Rank sum test was used for to compare the delay between each study site and the tendency of delay from 2005 to 2009 in each site. Results Among the patients, male accounted for 74.7%(3783/5066) and female accounted for 25.3%(1283/5066). The average age was 48.1 years old (95% CI:47.6－48.6), 85.5%(4331/5066) were farmers. The overall delay from 2005—2009 in eastern, middle and western regions were 24 d(0－404 d),42 d(0－730 d)and 62 d(0－587 d) respectively，which was significantly different between regions (χ²=1095.981，P=0.000).The delay from 2005 to 2009 in eastern region were 28 d(0－398 d)，19 d(0－387 d)，22 d(1－404 d)，22 d(0－219 d) and 22 d(0－96 d) respectively, and the differences are significant between years (χ²=117.840，P=0000). For middle region, the corresponding delay by year were 54 d (0－712 d)，40 d(1－730 d)，38 d(1－471 d)，44 d(1－709 d) and 44 d (1－711 d),the differences are not significant (χ²=6.310，P=0.177). For western region, the delay by year were 91 d(5－501 d)，67 d(0－521 d)，42 d(4－435 d)，51 d(3－587 d) and 59 d(4－268 d), the differences are not significant (χ²=166.120，P=0.000). Conclusion There was a downward trend of the delay from 2005 to 2009 in each site, however, for middle and western regions of China, there are still rooms for improvement.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Incidence