Modeling Time to Recovery of Adult Tuberculosis (Tb) Patients in MizanTepi University Teaching Hospital, South-West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease that has a major health problem over the centuries and it has accounted for more human misery suffering and loss of earning and failure of economic and social development than any other disease. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of prognostic factors associated with time to recovery of adult TB patients who were under treatment follow-up of Mizan-Tepi University Teaching Hospital. Study Design: A retrospective cohort study. Methods: The data was obtained from medical records of TB patients registered during September 2011 to August 2016 and treated under the DOTS program. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards model were applied. Backward selection procedure was used in variable selection. Results: In this study, 75% were recovered, 4.4% died, 9.7% defaulted, and 4.9% failure, while 6% transferred out rate. The median recovery time of the patients was 185 days (6 months and 5 days) but it varies depending on the covariates included in the study. TB Type (P<0.001), family size (P=0.035), Co-morbidity (P=0.045) and bodyweight (P=0.044) at baseline had a statistically significant. Conclusion: The effects of TB type, family size, co-morbidity and bodyweight at baseline had a statistically significant impact on time-to-recovery. The variables that are significant should be considered during the selection phase a treatment (combination of treatments) for TB.