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Home / The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Volume 21, Number 12

Diabetes and poor tuberculosis treatment outcomes: issues and implications in data interpretation and analysis

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Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis including 88 studies examining the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and TB treatment outcomes. However, we found several common methodological problems among them, including inappropriate adjustments for confounding factors, not using optimal statistical methods for ‘time to event' data, misclassification in exposure (DM) and outcomes (TB treatment outcomes) due to study design and non-standardisation of definitions, misunderstanding of basic study design concept, standardisation of TB treatment outcomes and quality control of publications. Many of these problems would apply more broadly to other ‘risk factors' for poor TB treatment outcomes. These issues need to be addressed and resolved to improve the quality of the studies and provide more accurate results for policy makers in the future to tackle the burden of TB.

Keywords: DM; TB; confounding; data analysis; risk factors

Document Type: Research Article

Affiliations: 1: Population Health Research Institute, St George's University of London, London, UK 2: Facultad de Medicina Alberto Hurtado and Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru; TB Centre, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Publication date: 01 December 2017

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  • The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD) is for clinical research and epidemiological studies on lung health, including articles on TB, TB-HIV and respiratory diseases such as COVID-19, asthma, COPD, child lung health and the hazards of tobacco and air pollution. Individuals and institutes can subscribe to the IJTLD online or in print – simply email us at [email protected] for details.

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