Survival time among patients who were diagnosed with tuberculosis, the precocious deaths and associated factors in southern Brazil

• Published in: Tropical Medicine and Health
• Main Authors: Danielle Talita dos Santos, Luiz Henrique Arroyo, Yan Mathias Alves, Luana Seles Alves, Thais Zamboni Berra, Juliane de Almeida Crispim, Josilene Dália Alves, Denisse Andrea Cartagena Ramos, Jonas Bodini Alonso, Ivaneliza Simionato de Assis, Antônio Vieira Ramos, Elma Mathias Dessunti, Ione Carvalho Pinto, Pedro Fredemir Palha, Ricardo Alexandre Arcêncio, Carla Nunes
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2021
• Subjects: Survival analysis; Tuberculosis; HIV; Mortality; Risk factors; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; Meier
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-021-00320-4; https://doaj.org/article/2d4c32e6d0c14756ac2680537630287b

Abstract Background A diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) does not mean that the disease will be treated successfully, since death may occur even among those who are known to the health services. Here, we aimed to analyze patient survival time from the diagnosis of TB to death, precocious deaths, and associated factors in southern Brazil. Methods We conducted a longitudinal study with patients who were diagnosed with TB and who died due to the disease between 2008 and 2015 in southern Brazil. The starting point for measuring survival time was the patient’s diagnosis date. Techniques for survival analysis were employed, including the Kaplan-Meier test and Cox’s regression. A mixed-effect model was applied for identifying the associated factors to precocious deaths. Hazard ratio (HR) and odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated. We defined p value <0.05 as statistically significant for all statistics applied. Results One hundred forty-six patients were included in the survival analysis, observing a median survival time of 23.5 days. We observed that alcoholism (HR=1.55, 95% CI=1.04-2.30) and being male (HR=6.49, 95% CI=1.03-2.68) were associated with death. The chance of precocious death within 60 days was 10.48 times greater than the chance of early death within 30 days. Conclusion Most of the deaths occurred within 2 months after the diagnosis, during the intensive phase of the treatment. The use of alcohol and gender were associated with death, revealing inequality between men and women. This study advanced knowledge regarding the vulnerability associated with mortality. These findings must be addressed to fill a gap in the care cascades for active TB and ensure equity in health.