Gender perspective in tuberculosis treatment outcomes
Keywords:
analytical epidemiology, gender perspective, pulmonary tuberculosis, risk factors, social determinants of healthAbstract
Introduction: Tuberculosis remains a major public health challenge despite the availability of effective therapeutic regimens. Social, behavioral, and nutritional factors may influence treatment adherence and cure, and gender-based analyses help identify differences in the determinants of therapeutic success.
Objective: To evaluate sociodemographic, behavioral, and nutritional factors associated with therapeutic success in tuberculosis according to sex.
Methods: Analytical retrospective cohort study using an open-access secondary database including 1,248 patients with confirmed pulmonary tuberculosis. Sociodemographic, behavioral, and nutritional variables were recorded at treatment initiation, and patients were followed until their final outcome, defined as cure versus any unfavorable result. Sex-stratified binary logistic regression was applied.
Results: The overall cure rate was 81%. Among men, completing secondary education was associated with a higher likelihood of cure, whereas weekly alcohol consumption, history of drug use, and underweight status reduced therapeutic success. Among women, only a history of drug use showed a significant negative association.
Conclusions: Therapeutic success in tuberculosis was influenced by social, behavioral, and nutritional factors, with distinct profiles according to sex.
Downloads
References
1. Chen Z, Wang T, Du J, Sun L, Wang G, Ni R, et al. Decoding the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2024: a critical analysis of global and Chinese key data [Internet]. Zoonoses. 2025;5(1):e999. 17 p. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15212/zoonoses-2024-0061
2. Perlaza CL, Mosquera FEC, Murillo LMR, Sepulveda VB, Arenas CDC. Factors of abandonment of tuberculosis treatment in the public health network [Internet]. Rev Saude Publica. 2023;57:8. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11606/s1518-8787.2023057004454
3. Failoc-Rojas VE, Hernández-Córdova G, Valladares-Garrido MJ, Medina C. Impact of educational short messages on the level of knowledge on prevention and early detection of tuberculosis from pharmacies in two districts of Peru [Internet]. Pharmacia (Sofia). 2025;72:1–6. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/pharmacia.72.e123884
4. Matakanye H, Tshitangano T. The impact of substance use on tuberculosis treatment adherence among tuberculosis patients in Limpopo Province, South Africa [Internet]. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2023:12 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.08.23291161
5. Morales F, Montserrat-de la Paz S, Leon MJ, Rivero-Pino F. Effects of malnutrition on the immune system and infection and the role of nutritional strategies regarding improvements in children’s health status: A literature review [Internet]. Nutrients. 2023;16(1):1. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu16010001
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Alberto Guevara Tirado
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who have publications with this Journal accept the following terms:
- The authors will retain their copyright and guarantee the Journal the right of first publication of their work, which will simultaneously be subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License. The content presented here can be shared, copied and redistributed in any medium or format; Can be adapted, remixed, transformed or created from the material, using the following terms: Attribution (giving appropriate credit to the work, providing a link to the license, and indicating if changes have been made); non-commercial (you cannot use the material for commercial purposes) and share-alike (if you remix, transform or create new material from this work, you can distribute your contribution as long as you use the same license as the original work).
- The authors may adopt other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version of the work (for example: depositing it in an institutional electronic archive or publishing it in a monographic volume) as long as the initial publication in this Journal is indicated.
- Authors are allowed and recommended to disseminate their work through the Internet (e.g., in institutional electronic archives or on their website) before and during the submission process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase citations. of the published work.
