Treatment Outcomes and Predictors Among Tuberculosis Patients at Madda Walabu University Goba Referral Hospital, Southeast Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a main public health threat worldwide. Over 90% of tuberculosis cases occur in low- and middle-income countries that have fragile health infrastructures and constrained resources available. Ethiopia ranks third in Africa and eighth of 22 from TB burdened countries globally. Case detection as early as possible and ensuring a successful treatment rate should be the main focus points to decrease the burden of TB. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate tuberculosis treatment outcomes and predictors among tuberculosis treatment follow-up patients at Madda Walabu University Goba Referral Hospital. METHODS: Retrospective document review was conducted among TB patients in the tuberculosis clinic at Goba Referral Hospital from January 1, 2015 to December 30, 2019. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25.0. Descriptive and logistic regressions analyses were performed to identify the rate and predictors of tuberculosis treatment outcomes. The odds ratio and 95% confidence interval were calculated to check the association between variables. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 33.8 ± 17.3 years, and more than half of them (58.4%, 218) were males. From the total 373 participants, 65 (17.4%) registered TB patients were diagnosed HIV-positive. The overall success rate was 320 (91.2%) with [95% CI, 88–94.3]. Among these, 91 (25.9%) were cured and 229 (65.2%) completed treatment whereas 8.8% with [95% CI, 5.7–12] were unsuccessful treatment outcomes. Among them, the majority 18 (5.1%) died, 6 (1.7%) were moved to MDR-TB center, 4 (1.1%) were lost to follow-up and 3 (0.9%) were documented as treatment failed. CONCLUSION: The treatment failure rate was 8.8% with [95% CI, 5.7–12]. The proportion of TB patents who died was relatively higher. HIV-positive patients and old age people were predictors of unsuccessful treatment outcomes. Thus, the health facility should strengthen the evaluation of HIV-positive patients and old age patients to minimize mortality.