Assessing the Effects of Prognostic Factors in Recovery of Tuberculosis Patients in the Upper West Region

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the effect of prognostic factors in recovery of tuberculosis patients in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Four hundred patients who underwent treatment at the Wa General Hospital were used in this research. Product Limit function and Logistic Regression model were used to analyze the data obtained. It was observed that female patients had more chance of recovery than their male counterparts. Variables that significantly contributed to recovery were age, type of patents, duration of treatment, and HIV status of the patient. Patients who recovered were 73.75% with 26.25% treatment failure and a median recovery time of 25.43 weeks. The results revealed that for each one week increase in age after treatment initiation, the risk of relapse decreases by 7.1%. This indicates that increase in age, increases the risk of relapse and even death. Patients co-infested with HIV/AIDS had a high risk of treatment failure. People should be educated to avoid spitting in public places and cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze, patients should also be encouraged to visit the health centre regularly and also take drugs as prescribed, the Directly Observed Therapy Short-Course should be introduced for all patients, and especially the elderly and the immune compromised patients must be treated with care.

Keywords:Tuberculosis, Product-Limit Estimator, Binary Logistic Regression