Abstract: Objective  To analyze the impact of rural pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patient on their family economy in Hunan province，to build TB patients family economic burden index.  Methods  354 patients who registered consecutively as confirmed new active PTB in 6 sample county-level CDCs from Jul to Sep in 2005 were investigated. They were distributed in 354 families. In <30, 30-, 45- and 60- four age groups, there were respectively 78 cases,121 cases,89 cases and 66 cases. Under the premise of informed consent, each one was given an interview at the time of confirmed diagnosis and at the end of treatment by adopting self-designed tuberculosis socioeconomic questionnaire. Data related to the patients’ medical expenses after sick, and personal and family economic income, expenditure and other related information 1 year before and after the sick were collected.  Results  After illness, the total family income reduced 4.374 million in 354 patient families, averagely reduced 1235.6 Yuan (with a median of 625 Yuan). The proportion of patients whose annual income accounted more than half of family annual income reduced from 48.9%（173/354）to 27.1%(96/354) after illness. Compared with the total family income and expenditure, the deficit family increase to 69.5%（246/354） from 26.3%（93/354）after illness. The medical expenses of tuberculosis patients  accounted for (20.4±15.1)% of household expenditure; In <30, 30-, 45- and 60- four age groups, this proportion was (16.5±10.1)%, (17.9±12.4)%,(19.5±13.7)% and (30.6±21.2)% respectively. This proportion rises with the increasing in age group(H=26.788，P=0.0001). The medical expenses of tuberculosis accounted (89.6±18.9)% of household medical expenses, this proportion in 45- years old (84.9±24.6)% was lower than any other age groups （90.3±18.4)%, (90.5±15.9)% and (93.6±14.5)% respectively in <30、30-、60-years old group）（F=2.982，P=0.031. The average family economic burden index of TB patients is 0.33 years, and median burden index is 0.16 years（0.14-10.3 years）.  Conclusion  TB reduces the income of patients and their families. PTB not only led to the over expenditure in  70% PTB patient family, but also make some poor families become more impoverished.

Key words: Tuberculosis, Lung, Family economy, Impact, Hunan province