Nutritional Status and Associated Factors among Multi-Drug Resistance Tuberculosis Patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022: Retrospective Cohort Study 2016 -2021

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition and tuberculosis are the main concerns of underdeveloped regions of the world. Undernutrition is related to active tuberculosis disease and a severe form of Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis that increases the risk of death and tuberculosis relapse. Objectives: Therefore, this study aimed to assess the nutritional status and associated factors among multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2022. Methods: A six-year retrospective cohort study was conducted at St. Peter Hospital from January, 1/2016 to January, 1/2021. All multidrug-resistant patients in St. Peter Hospital who started therapy were selected by a simple random sampling method. Eventually, data were entered into EPI-DATA version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. Descriptive analysis, such as frequency, percentage, and mean, was computed. A logistic regression model was used to measure the association between the nutritional status of MDT-TB patients and independent variables. Bivariate and multivariable regression analysis with 95% CI was employed. Variables found to have a P-value < 0.2 in the binary logistic regression were entered into multivariable analysis, and the strength of association at multivariable analysis was declared at a P-value < 0.05. Results: The mean age and standard deviation of the 403 respondents were 32.9±12.2 years. Nearly more than half (54.3%) of participants were male. The Prevalence of malnutrition among Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients is 61.3% with 95 % CI of 56.8 – 66.5.  Being single moms (AOR: 0.26, 95 % CI 0.07-0.91; p = 0.035), married mothers (AOR: 0.28 95 % CI 0.08-1.00; p = 0.05), divorced women (AOR: 0.11 95 % CI 0.03-0.45; p = 0.003), House hold with family size less than four (AOR: 0.55 95% CI 0.31-0.97; p = 0.04), and MDR-TB patients with other medical co morbidity (AOR: 0.20 95% CI 0.13-0.32; p = 0.04) had lower prevalence of malnutrition problem than their counterpart. However, MDR-TB patients with a smoking habit were more likely to have malnutrition problems (AOR: 2.90, 95 % CI 1.31-6.51; p = 0.009). Conclusion: Prevalence of malnutrition among MDR-TB was high.  Therefore, health care providers of the nutrition department need to focus on addressing awareness creation, advice, facilitation of nutritional support, and supplementation to improve the nutritional status of MDR-TB patients.