title: Factors Affecting Mortality and Treatment Completion of Tuberculosis Patients in Isfahan Province from 2006 to 2011.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Regarding cases of infectious diseases tuberculosis (TB) is the most important cause of death and according to the DALY criteria, this disease has the seventh position in global disease ranking. In this study, we aim to determine the risk factors, which have a significant effect on the treatment completion and mortality of TB patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is a retrospective cohort study. The sample is made up of registered TB patients in the Isfahan Province from 2006 to 2011. Information of the patients was collected from their files in health centers in the Isfahan Province. Variables such as age, sex, weight, nationality, residence, type of TB, imprisonment, human immunodeficiency virus, TB case were measured. Descriptive statistics (including frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and statistical analysis (including Cox proportional hazard model) were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The result showed that imprisonment (hazard ratio [HR] = 4.76, P = 0.019), age (HR = 4.44, P = 0.001) and the TB case (HR = 2.73, P = 0.037) of pulmonary TB had significant impacts on mortality of the patients, also in the case of treatment completion, the TB case (HR = 0.34, P < 0.001) proved to have a significant impact on completion of the treatment. Type of extra-pulmonary TB in extra-pulmonary TB patients also had an effect on treatment completion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We can conclude that factors such as age, imprisonment, TB case and type of extra-pulmonary TB are effective on the treatment completion and mortality of the patients. It may be useful for policy makers to make more control of high-risk patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health and Biostatistics, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Marzieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shahrezaei
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Maracy
authors.affiliation: General Practitioner, Group Fighting Against Diseases, Isfahan Provincial Health Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fariba
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farid
keywords: Extra-pulmonary tuberculosis; mortality; pulmonary tuberculosis; treatment completion