Factors Affecting Treatment Outcomes for Tuberculosis Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the ten leading causes of death globally. The present study aims to examine the treatment outcomes in TB patients and to determine the factors associated with unsuccessful treatment outcomes. Materials and Methods: This study was a retrospective registry-based cohort study conducted in Ordu pro-vince of Turkey between 2017-2021. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the risk factors asso-ciated with unsuccessful outcomes. Results: A total of 400 TB patients were included in the analysis. The observed overall treatment success rate (TSR) (cured or treatment completed) was 87.7% (351). 49 patients (12.3%) had unsuccessful treatment results (death, failure or loss to follow-up). Age>65 years (odds ratio [OR] =12.2, 95% confidence intervals [CI] =4.03-36.85), male gender (OR = 2.2, 95% CI = 1.05-4.45) and being foreign-born (OR = 9.2, 95% CI = 1.16-73.72) were identified as risk factors associated with unsuccessful outcomes in patients (p<0.05). Conclusions: Age>65 years, male gender and foreign-born patients tend to have unsuccessful treatment outcomes. Careful monitoring of patients with any of these characteristics and taking special precautions for them may help to decrease unsuccessful treatment outcomes.