Determinants of Default from Pulmonary Tuberculosis Treatment in Kuwait

Table 3

Extent of disease, cavitation, bacteriology, and drug susceptibility pattern among defaulters and nondefaulters.

Variables	Defaulters (𝑛=110)	Nondefaulters (𝑛=330)	𝑃 value
Extent of disease:
Minimal	66 (60.0)	210 (63.6)	0.96 (NS)
Moderate	32 (29.1)	85 (28.8)
Advanced	12 (10.9)	29 (11.8)
Cavitary disease:	22 (20.0)	65 (19.7)	0.83 (NS)
Bacteriological status:
Smear and culture positive	43 (39.1)	128 (38.8)	0.92 (NS)
Smear positive only	16 (14.6)	57 (17.3)
Culture positive only	36 (32.7)	102 (30.9)
Smear and culture negative	15 (13.6)	43 (13.0)
Drug susceptibility:
Fully sensitive	97 (88.2)	295 (89.4)	0.79 (NS)
Resistant to one first-line drug	9 (8.2)	27 (8.2)
Resistant to more than one first-line drug	4 (3.6)	8 (2.4)
Multiple drug resistance:	4 (3.7)	1 (0.3)	0.01

There were no statistical significant differences between cases and controls regarding the extent of disease, presence of cavitation, or positive bacteriology (𝑃>0.05).
Whereas the proportion with resistance to one or more drugs was similar between cases and controls, the proportion with MDR was higher among cases (3.7) than among controls (0.3). Four patients with MDR who defaulted were still culture positive and one of them was also smear positive at the time of default.