Tuberculosis treatment outcome among pulmonary tb patients in referral centres of kebbi state, north-western nigeria

Intro: Tuberculosis remains a public health threat in Nigeria. Monitoring and evaluating the treatment the outcome of tuberculosis in government own referral centres and understanding the reasons for unsuccessful treatment outcomes are integral parts of the effective control program in Nigeria. This study investigated tuberculosis treatment outcomes and factors associated with unsuccessful tuberculosis control programs in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Methods: A retrospective document review of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients was conducted from September 2018 to June 2021 in 21 Local Area Councils in Kebbi State, Northern Nigeria. Additional data were collected using a pretested structured data extraction format. The association of treatment outcomes with associated variables was analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analysis with a 95% confidence interval with SPSS Version 23. Findings: A total of 6114 records of TB patients were reviewed. 1161(18.9%) of which 963(82.9%) were males and198 (17.1%) females commenced treatment, while 1115 (18.2%) of all records had documented treatment outcomes. Of the 1115 patients with outcomes, 1023(91.7%) had successful treatment outcomes, and 92(8.3%) had an unsuccessful outcome. High treatment success was recorded in female (97.6%) patients with new cases (92.3%) and with pulmonary infections (91.2%). In the multivariate logistic analysis, the odds of unsuccessful treatment outcomes were higher among patients with extrapulmonary infections (adj. OR = 2.40, 95% CI:(1.12-5.39),older than 40 years of age (adj. OR = 2.00, 95% CI: (1.37-2.92), and with old or other cases (adj. OR = 3.03, 95% CI:(1.47- 7.19) as compared to their respective comparison groups. Conclusion: The rate of successful TB treatment outcomes was satisfactory in Kebbi State, Northern Nigeria. Nonetheless, one-fourth of the total patients reviewed were not documented for treatment. Therefore, the need for designing an appropriate recruitment strategy to identify and enrol those patients for an effective and successful TB control program in the State and Nigeria.