Time to a Tuberculosis Treatment Cure and Its Predictors among Tuberculosis Patients at Public Health Facilities in Arbaminch Town, South Ethiopia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Introduction : The WHO's 2022 Global Tuberculosis Report shows that TB causes 1.3 million deaths annually, including 167,000 TB-HIV confections. It affects 10.6 million people, mainly in Asia and Africa, 75% of whom are in the economically active age group of 15--54 years. Treatment interruptions hinder efforts to eliminate TB by 2030. According to a recent systematic review conducted using Ethiopian studies indicated that the pooled prevalence of TB treatment cure rate was 33.9%. There is a lack of evidence on time to TB treatment cure in Ethiopia using survival analysis. Objective : This study aimed to determine the time to TB treatment cure and its predictors among tuberculosis patients from January 2021 to December 2023 at public health facilities in Arba Minch town. South Ethiopia. Method: An institution-based retrospective cohort study was conducted among 628 selected TB patients who were admitted to the TB care unit at Arba Minch General Hospital, Dilfana Primary Hospital, and both health centers from 2021 to 2023. A Kaplan Meier survival curve was fitted to test the survival time. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify predictors with TB treatment cure. Significance was considered at a p value ≤ 0.05 with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 95% CI in the multivariate analysis. Results : Out of the 628 patients whose records were analyzed, the median time to cure was 162 days. The significant predictors of time to TB cure included being male (AHR 0.3, 95% CI: 0.35–0.95), history of TB treatment (AHR 0.56, 95% CI: 0.35–0.95), and normal BMI (AHR 1.04, 95% CI: 1.32–1.49). Conclusions : Female sex, a history of TB treatment, increased weight, and health facility type were found to be independent predictors of time to cure. Therefore, working on these predicators to improve TB treatment is critical.