Factors associated with relapse, defaulter and treatment failure in tuberculosis treatment in eastern nepal

Introduction: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Relapse, defaulter and treatment failure are one of the major public health concerns in the South-East Asia Region. These cases are in increasing in recent years in Nepal. This study attempts to find out the factors associated with relapse, defaulter and treatment failure.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in three purposively selected districts namely Sunsari, Morang and Jhapa of Eastern Nepal. Altogether 67 cases of relapse, defaulter and treatment failure cases were collected from different DOTS referral centers of these three districts. Univariate and Bivariate analysis were performed to find out the associated factors.
Results: The majority of collected cases were found to be relapse 65.7% and defaulter 29.9% then treatment failure 4.5%. The mean age of respondent was 49.01 years, more than two third were male and majority were married. More than half of respondents were unemployed. Nearly two third of respondents were illiterate. Nearly 40% respondent had family income in range of 10,000 -20,000 per month. Most of them (64%) resided in urban area. Most of them had cross ventilation in sleeping rooms. Nearly 90% respondents were non-smoker and 21% respondents took alcohol habitually.
Conclusions: The study revealed that there was significant association between occupation with relapse and defaulter. However, there was no association found between smoking cigarettes, alcoholism, illicit drug use and economic status. This study could be helpful to the concerned authority and stakeholders in making plan and policy related to relapse, defaulter and treatment failure associated with different occupational groups.