Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease and its transmissibility is increased in congregate settings. TB incidence rates are five-to-fifty times higher among inmates in prison settings than the general population which has a direct impact on the outcome of TB treatment. There is paucity of information on TB treatment outcomes and its associated factors in Nigerian prison settings. We therefore assessed TB treatment outcomes among inmates in prison settings in Bauchi State, Nigeria. We conducted a retrospective data analysis of inmates with TB in the five-main prison settings in Bauchi State. We extracted socio-demographic, clinical and treatment outcome characteristics from TB treatment register of inmates treated for TB between January 2014 and December 2018, using a checklist. We calculated the TB treatment success rate (TSR) and explored the relationship between the TSR and socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Related variables were modelled in multiple logistic regression to identify factors associated with TSR at 5% level of significance. All 216 inmates were male with mean (SD) age of 37.6±11.4 years. Seventy-six (35.2%) were cured, 61 (28.2%) completed treatment, 65 (30.1%) were transferred-out without evaluation and 14 (6.5%) died. Overall TSR was 72.9%. Factors associated with successful-treatment-outcome were age, weight, imprisonment duration and HIV status. The results indicate that inmates who are 20–29 years are at least ten times more likely to be successful (aOR = 10.5; 95%CI: 3.2–35.1) than inmates who are 55 years or older. Inmates who are 30–39 years are about four times more likely to be successful than inmates who are 55 years or older (aOR = 4.2; 95% CI: 1.3–13.1). In general, the younger an inmate, the more successful he is. Inmates with pretreatment-weight; 55kg or more are 13 times more likely to be successful (aOR = 13.3; 95%CI: 6.0–29.6) than inmates with weight below 55kg. Inmates who were imprisoned for 2 years or less are about three times more likely to be successful (aOR = 2.6; 95%CI: 1.3–5.4) than inmates who were imprisoned for more than 2 years and HIV negative inmates were three times more likely to succeed (aOR = 3.3; 95%CI:1.4–7.8) than inmates who were HIV positive. We recommended that to improve TB treatment outcome among inmates; age, duration-of-imprisonment, weight and TB/HIV co-infection should be the major consideration during pretreatment, psychological and nutritional counselling and a tracking-system be developed by the authority to follow-up inmates transferred-out to other health facilities to ensure they complete the treatment and outcomes evaluated.

Background : Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease and its transmissibility potential is increased in congregate settings like the prisons. TB incidence rates are five to fifty times higher among prison inmates than the general population which has a direct impact on the outcome of TB treatment. There is paucity of information on TB treatment outcomes and its predictors in Nigerian prisons. We therefore assessed TB treatment outcomes among prison inmates in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Method: We conducted a retrospective data analysis of inmates with TB in the five main prisons in Bauchi State. We extracted sociodemographic, clinical and treatment outcome characteristics from TB treatment register of inmates treated for TB between January 2014 and December 2018, using a standardized checklist. We estimated the TB treatment success rate (TSR) and explored the relationship between the TSR and sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Related variables were modelled in multiple logistic regression to identify predictors of TSR at 5% level of significance. Results: All 216 inmates were male with mean (SD) age of 37.6±11.4 years. Seventy-six (35.2%) were cured, 61 (28.2%) completed treatment, 48 (22.2%) were lost to follow-up, 17 (7.9%) were transferred out without evaluation and 14 (6.5%) died. Overall TSR was 72.9%. Predictors of successful treatment outcome were age; 20-29 years (AOR=10.5; 95% CI: 3.2-35.1), 30-39 years (AOR=4.2; 95% CI: 1.3-13.1), pretreatment weight; ≥ 55kg (AOR= 13.3; 95% CI: 6.0-29.6), imprisonment for ≤ 2 years (AOR= 2.6; 95% CI: 1.3-5.4) and being HIV negative (AOR=3.3; 95% CI:1.4-7.8). Conclusion: The predictors of successful TB treatment outcome were being less than 40 years of age, having a pretreatment body weight of or greater than 55 kg, imprisonment for less than 2 years, and being HIV negative. We recommended that to improve TB TSR among prison inmates; age, duration of imprisonment, weight and TB/HIV co-infection should be the major consideration during pretreatment, psychological and nutritional counselling and a tracking system be developed by the prisons authority to follow-up inmates transferred-out to other health facilities to ensure they complete the treatment and outcomes evaluated.