Outcomes of tuberculosis treatment in a tertiary health facility in north-central Nigeria

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health concern despite being a curable and preventable disease. The treatment of TB using a cocktail of drugs over a period of six months under the directly observed treatment short-course strategy has led to a reduction in cases but is plagued by some challenges that leads to unsuccessful or poor outcomes, which can ultimately result in spread of infections, development of drug resistance and increase in morbidity and mortality. The objectives of this study are to determine outcomes of TB treatment in Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria and the factors that may be associated with the outcomes. Methodology: This was a retrospective study using the medical records of patients who were registered for TB treatment over a five-year period between 2016 to 2020. Data from TB registers including demographic and relevant clinical information, and treatment outcomes, were extracted into a structured data extraction format, and analysed with SPSS version 21.0 software package. Univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted, and Chi square test was used to determine association between TB outcomes and independent variables at 95% confidence interval and p