Factors Associated with Mortality in Tuberculosis Patients at Debre Birhan Referral Hospital, Ethiopia: A Retrospective Study

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the major cause of mortality worldwide and deaths from tuberculosis continue to occur despite the availability of effective antimicrobial agents. Understanding the factors associated with death is important to decrease mortality from TB. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and factors leading to death among TB patients registered at Debre Birhan Referral Hospital, Debre Birhan, Ethiopia.Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study. Data was obtained by assessing medical records of 262 tuberculosis patients registered at Debre Birhan Referral Hospital from January 2013 to January 2015. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were collected from medical records using data extraction sheet. Chi-square analysis was used to determine the risk factors for TB mortality.Result: From a total of 262 registered TB patients included in the study, 249 were included in the analysis of which 41(16.5%) died during TB treatment. Of the patients with unsuccessful treatment outcome in this study, death was the most common advsserse TB treatment outcome. TB Mortality was significantly associated with the type of TB, HIV Co-infection, co-morbidity, sputum smear results and time to visit the hospital for diagnosis (p<0.05).Conclusion: The proportion of death among hospitalized TB patients was found to be high and several factors were associated with TB mortality. Hence, monitoring those factors is important to reduce the death rate in TB patients.