Comparative study of six-month and eight-month treatment of new smear positive tuberculosis cases at a tertiary health facility in Enugu, South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Factors that affect tuberculosis (TB) treatment outcomes are important and should be investigated to achieve the targets of TB control program. Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare treatment outcomes of new smear positive TB patients treated for six months with those treated for eight months. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study of 600 new smear-positive TB patients was carried out. The data were analyzed using Stata version 22 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA), and the values of P < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors that influenced treatment outcomes. Results: Overall, a higher proportion of patients (78.6%) who were treated for six months had successful treatment outcomes as compared with those treated for eight months 64.4% (P = < 0.001, OR = 2.03, CI = 1.41–2.91). After adjusting for confounders, sex (P = 0.040, AOR = 0.65, CI = 0.44–0.98), treatment duration (P < 0.001, AOR = 2.27, CI = 1.53–3.39), and pretreatment weight (P = 0.007, AOR = 1.28, CI = 1.07–1.52) independently predicted treatment outcome. Conclusion: The treatment success rate was better among the patients treated for six-month duration than those treated for eight-month duration. The current six-month regimen recommended by WHO should be maintained. Loss to follow-up and TB/HIV coinfection management should be improved.

Keywords

• eight months
• nigeria
• six months
• smear positive
• treatment outcomes
• tuberculosis