Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Hospital Setting: Retrospective Study on Risk Factors

Abstract

Pulmonary tuberculosis is an airborne disease when people with tuberculosis cough up tuberculosis bacilli into the air. It is a serious public health problem in developing countries. In Morocco, the clinical management of pulmonary tuberculosis is often ambulatory, and hospitalization is indicated only for severe or complicated cases. This study aims to investigate the risk factors associated with pulmonary tuberculosis in patients hospitalized. A retrospective study was conducted on patients with pulmonary tuberculosis hospitalized in the pulmonology department from January 1, 2019 to June 1, 2021. Data were extracted from tuberculosis patients' records and statically analyzed using SPSS software. A total of 140 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis were identified with a predominance of the male gender (90.71%). The age category between 15 and 34 years was the most affected by the disease (p=0.017). The bivariate analysis showed that there are apparent risk factors for the disease. Most of the patients who developed the disease were smokers (p=0.035) of the male gender (p=0.003). There was a significant association between the disease and HIV-positive status (p=0.001). In addition, diabetic patients were also predisposed to develop the disease (p=0.002). In conclusion, young and male patients were more likely to be affected by the disease. Smoking, contact with a person with tuberculosis, and comorbidity with the disease were found to be risk factors for developing lung disease. This calls for intensified screening activities for tuberculosis in active patients.