ISSN: 2471-9315
Eyerus Tesfaw Addis, Getiye Dejenu, Atsede Alle, Animut Takele, Samueal Derbie, Yichalem Worku
Background: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In spite of this, tuberculosis is curable; causes ill health in millions of people each year. It was one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide and the second cause of death in Ethiopia in 2015.
Objective: The aim of this study was to estimate mortality rate and its predictors among tuberculosis patients in Debre Markos Referral Hospital.
Methods: Institution-based retrospective follow up study was conducted among 570 tuberculosis cases at Debre Markos Referral Hospital. Data was collected from February 1 to 20/2018. A pretested checklist was used to extract the necessary data from patient record document selected using simple random sampling methods from eligible tuberculosis cases registered from January 1/2008 to June 30/2017. The collected data was entered using Epi Data version 4.2, while the analysis was done by using STATA statistical software version 14.0. Kaplan Meier method was used to estimate survival probability and Cox’s proportional hazards model was used to identify predictors of mortality.
Results: From 569 tuberculosis patients 47(8.3%) died during the follow up period. The general mortality rate was 17.3 per 1000 person months. From the total number of death (47), 65% died during the two months of treatment period. Tuberculosis patients with 31-45 age group (HR=2.93, 95% CI=1.36-6.33), 46-60 age group (HR=4.16, 95% CI=1.75-9.85) and older than 60 age group (HR=13.1, 95% CI=4.24-40.53) were 2.9, 4.2 and 13 times more likely to die early than 18-30 age group respectively. Patients with body weight >35 kg at the onset of tuberculosis treatment were 69% less likely to die than patients with body weight ≤35. (HR=0.31, 95%CI=0.12-0.79). TB/HIV co-infected patients were 2 times higher risk of dying at any time in the follow up compared to HIV negative patients (HR=2.18, 95% CI=1.09-4.23).
Conclusions: More than half of deaths occur in two months of treatment period. Patients with HIV positive, older age and less than 35 kg body weight were at increased risk of death during treatment period. Therefore, they need special follow up and support.