Treatment Outcomes and Associated Factors in Tuberculosis Patients at Atwima Nwabiagya District, Ashanti Region, Ghana: A Ten-Year Retrospective Study

Table 1

Operational definitions used in this study.

Term	Definition
Cured	A pulmonary positive TB patient who has completed a full course of treatment and has tested negative to smear or culture-negative in the last month of treatment and at least one previous occasion.
Treatment completed	A TB patient who completed treatment without failure of treatment and with no evidence to show that sputum smear or culture results in the last month of treatment and on at least one previous occasion were negative, either because tests were not done or because results are unavailable.
Treatment failure	A TB patient who remains sputum smear or culture positive at month five or later during treatment regardless of adherence to the prescribed treatment protocols
Died	A TB patient who dies for any reason before starting or during treatment.
Default	A patient who interrupted treatment consecutively for two weeks or more after initiation of treatment
Transferred in	A patient who has been transferred from another TB register to continue treatment transferred to another reporting and recording unit for continuation of treatment, for whom treatment outcome is unknown.
HIV infection	Being infected with the human immune deficiency virus (HIV) that is confirmed by first and second line serologic tests
HIV/TB coinfection	The presence of both HIV and TB infection in a patient.
Successful treatment	A combination of cure and treatment completed.
Unsuccessful treatment	A combination of death, default, and treatment failure
New patient	A patient who has never had treatment for TB or who has taken anti-TB drugs for less than 1 month
Relapse	A patient previously treated for TB declared cured or treatment completed and who is diagnosed bacteriological (+) TB (smear or culture).
Failure	A patient who is restarted on a TB treatment after having failed previous treatment
Treatment supporter	A person who assists the patient in following treatment schedule throughout treatment. It can be a relative or a health professional