Treatment success and mortality among adults with tuberculosis in rural eastern Uganda: a retrospective cohort study
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Date
2020Author
Izudi, Jonathan
Tamwesigire, Imelda K.
Bajunirwe, Francis
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Background: Successful treatment of tuberculosis leads to clinical and public health benefits such as reduction in
transmission, complications, and mortality among patients. However, data are limited on treatment outcomes and
the associated factors among persons with bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary (BC-PTB) in rural areas of high
dual tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) burden countries such as Uganda. We investigated
factors associated with successful treatment of tuberculosis and mortality among adult persons with BC-PTB in rural
eastern Uganda.
Methods: We constructed a retrospective cohort of persons with BC-PTB from a routine tuberculosis clinic database
in eastern Uganda. We performed bivariate and multivariate analysis. Using a 5% level of significance, we ran a
modified Poisson regression analysis to determine factors independently associated with treatment success and
mortality rates.
Results: We retrieved 1123 records for persons with BC-PTB and the treatment outcomes were distributed as
follows: 477(42.5%) cured, 323 (28.0%) treatment completed, 17(1.5%) treatment failed, 81(7.2%) died, 89(7.9%) lost
to follow-up, and 136(12.1%) not evaluated. Overall, 800 (81.1%) of the 987 persons with BC-PTB that had treatment
outcome, were successfully treated. Successful treatment of tuberculosis was less likely to occur among those with
HIV infection (Adjusted risk ratio (aRR), 0.88; 95% Confidence Interval (CI), 0.82–0.95), older than 50 years (aRR, 0.89;
95% CI, 0.81–0.97), or male sex (aRR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.87–0.98). Mortality was associated with HIV infection (aRR, 4.48;
95% CI, 2.95–6.79), older than 50 years (aRR, 2.93; 95% CI, 1.74–4.92), year of enrollment into treatment after 2015
(aRR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.66–0.97), and Community-Based Directly Observed Therapy Short Course (aRR, 0.26; 95% CI,
0.13–0.50).
Conclusions: Treatment success rate among adult persons with BC-PTB in rural eastern Uganda is suboptimal and
mortality rate is high. HIV infection and older age reduce chances of treatment success, and increase mortality rate.
Older and HIV infected persons with BC-PTB will require special consideration to optimize treatment success rate
and reduce mortality rate.
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