Risk Factors for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis and Characteristics of Cases: A Case-Control Study of Patients Attending ALERT General Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background:Tuberculosis remains a major public-health problem in the world, despite several efforts to improve case identification and treatment. Particularly multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is becoming a major threat to tuberculosis control programs in Ethiopia which seriously threatens the control and prevention efforts and is associated with both high death rates and treatment costs. Methods: A case-control study was conducted to assess risk factors and characteristics of MDR-TB cases at ALERT Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where cases were 167 MDR-TB patients, while controls were newly diagnosed and bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB cases of similar number, who were matched by sex and age of 5-years interval. Results: The socio-demographic characteristics of the participants indicated that majority (53.3%) were males and 46.7% females; a little over half of cases (55.1%) were in the age group 26 - 45 years, whereas 46.7% of controls were in this age group. According to the multivariable logistic regression analysis, previous history of hospital admission was the only factor that was identified as predictor which increased risk to develop MDR-TB by almost twenty times (AOR = 19.5; 95% CI: 9.17 - 41.62) and P-value of u003c0.05. All other studied factor such as being unemployed, family size, having member of household member with TB, and history of visiting hospital in past 12 months etc., didn’t show any statistically significant association. Conclusion: The study identified previous history of hospital admission as independent predictors for the occurrence of MDR-TB, while other studied variables didn’t show any strong association. The findings added to the pool of knowledge emphasizing the need for instituting strong infection control practice at health care facilities to prevent nosocomial transmission of MDR-TB.