Treatment outcomes and their trend among tuberculosis patients treated at peripheral health settings of Northern Ethiopia between 2009 and 2014: a registry-based retrospective analysis

OBJECTIVE: Evidence on treatment outcomes and their trend analysis through a register based retrospective study have significant contributions in the improvement of a national tuberculosis program. This study was aimed at determining tuberculosis treatment outcomes and their trend analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 3445 patient records were included. More than half (58%) were males and the mean age was 33.88 ± 16.91 years (range 0-90). From the total TB patients, 18.8% were HIV co infected. The treatment outcome of TB patients were 371 (10.8%) cured, 2234 (64.8) treatment completed, 119 (3.5%) died, 9 (0.3%) failed, 178 (5.1%) defaulted and 534 (15.5%) were transferred out. The overall treatment success rate was 89.5%. When assessed on yearly basis, treatment success rate was 87% in year 2009-2010 to 92.8% in 2013-2014 with 6.67% change in the outcome indicator over the 5 years period. Among pulmonary TB, pulmonary negative TB and extra pulmonary TB, the rate of successful treatment outcome was 83.1% to 89%, 85.1% to 89.4%, and 87.4% to 92%, respectively in the year 2009-2010 to 2013-2014. The percentage of the overall successful treatment outcomes were significantly associated with the year of treatment (p = 0.014).