Trends of unsuccessful treatment outcomes and associated factors among tuberculosis patients in public hospitals of Bale Zone, Southeast Ethiopia: A 5-year retrospective study

INTRODUCTION: Tuberculosis (TB) is a curable disease caused by the tubercle bacillus and its treatment is designed to cure, interrupt transmission, and prevent drug resistance. These aims have not yet been achieved in many regions of the world, particularly in developing countries like Ethiopia. Thus, this study was designed to assess the trends of unsuccessful treatment outcomes and associated factors among patients with TB in two public hospitals in the Bale zone, southeast Ethiopia. METHODS: A 5-year retrospective data among 1281 patients with TB who registered and started treatment (from July 2013 to June 2018/19) in two selected Bale zone hospitals was retrieved. Together with descriptive statistics, binomial and multinomial logistic regression modeling were carried out using STATA version 14 to estimate the odds ratio. RESULTS: The overall unsuccessful TB treatment outcomes in this study was 10.4% and moderately decreased over the year of treatment (from 14.1% to 8.4%, x2 = 7.35, and p = 0.011). Approximately 34 (7.6%) of pulmonary positive and 34 (7.4%) of pulmonary negative TB patients had experienced treatment failure and death, respectively. The level of the hospital, patients with smear-negative and extrapulmonary, transferred in, aged, and human immunodeficiency virus status were found to have a statistically significant association with unsuccessful treatment outcomes of patients with TB. CONCLUSION: In this study, approximately one-tenth of patients with TB had unsuccessful treatment outcomes that moderately declined over the year of treatment. Strengthening control efforts like counseling during the intensive and continual phases of treatment and scheduling home visits is recommended.