Indian Journal of Community and Family Medicine (Jan 2019)
Nutritional status of pulmonary tuberculosis patients: A hospital-based cross-sectional study
Abstract
Introduction: Undernutrition among tuberculosis (TB) patients is associated with adverse treatment outcomes and increases risk of mortality. The nutritional status of pulmonary TB patients attending Outpatient Department of Combined Hospital, Thakurganj, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Material and Methods: Two hundred recently diagnosed patients and those who were on intensive phase therapy were selected prospectively. A structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic, lifestyle, health, and dietary information of the selected TB patients. Clinical information was collected from medical records. Nutritional status was measured as body mass index (BMI) (weight and height) using standard techniques. Results: Nutritional status measured as BMI was categorized as underweight (18.5) was the primary outcome of the study. Ninety-eight (49%) TB patients were very severely undernourished (BMI <16) and 159 (79.5%) patients had BMI <18.5. Only 44.5% patients reported receiving diet counselling during hospital visit. The adjusted analysis showed higher odds of underweight among patients who had breathing difficulty (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.85; confidence interval [CI] = 1.19–6.85; P= 0.01). Patients with diabetes had significantly lower odds of underweight (AOR = 0.12; CI = 0.02–0.95; P= 0.04). Higher odds of low BMI were also found among patients consumed tobacco (AOR = 2.4; CI = 0.95–6.28; P= 0.05), using open defecation (AOR = 3.77; CI = 0.91–15.64; P= 0.06), but findings were not statistically significant. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated high proportion of severe undernutrition among pulmonary TB patients. There is an urgent need for the provision of proper nutrition management and counseling of TB hospitals at the hospitals as per the national nutrition guidelines for TB patients.
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