Care beyond microbiological cure: A case control study comparing quality of life between MDRTB and drug-sensitive TB patients.

BACKGROUND

The emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis has become a significant public health problem and an obstacle to end tuberculosis. Despite the considerable attention given to traditional microbiological and clinical indicators in National TB programs, the effect of tuberculosis on the quality of life of patients has largely been neglected. This study was planned to compare the quality of life of MDR pulmonary tuberculosis with the drug-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis and to find the association of different domains of quality of life with selected socio-demographic variables.

METHODS

This is a facility-based observational analytical study done at a District Tuberculosis Centre, Kolkata, with MDR adult pulmonary tuberculosis patients as cases and drug-sensitive adult pulmonary tuberculosis patients as controls selected in a 1:2 ratio (114 cases and 228 controls). WHOQOL BREF was used to estimate quality of life.

RESULTS

Wilcoxon signed rank test revealed a significant statistical difference in the mean value of quality-of-life transformed scores across each domain of WHO QOL BREF between cases and the control group (P < 0.001). QOL scores were compared by domains according to selected socio-demographic parameters, where sex, age, marital status, and educational status showed a significant statistical difference. Presence of comorbidity, being underweight, and history of tuberculosis have statistically significantly lower transformed score (P < 0.001) across all domains.

CONCLUSION

The score of the MDR TB group was found to be lower than that of drug-sensitive TB group. A special package including the appointment of a counsellor at the point of treatment may be beneficial.