The impact of undernutrition on tuberculosis prevalence and treatment outcomes in Ethiopia
type: CreativeWork
description: Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading infectious cause of death globally, with an estimated 10.6 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths annually. The emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), characterized by resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin, further complicates the global TB control efforts. The progression from latent to active TB is influenced by various factors including undernutrition. While the individual-level association between TB and undernutrition has been documented, there has been a lack of studies exploring their geospatial co-distribution, particularly in high TB-burden countries like Ethiopia. There was also limited evidence on the impacts of undernutrition or failure to gain weight during follow-up on treatment outcomes among patients with TB and MDR-TB in Ethiopia. Furthermore, there was insufficient conclusive evidence to measure the effects of nutritional intervention on improving adherence to TB treatment and outcomes. This PhD thesis aimed to address these knowledge gaps by investigating the geospatial overlap of undernutrition and TB (objective 1), quantifying the effect of undernutrition and weight change on TB and MDR-TB treatment outcomes (objectives 2 and 3), and assessing the impact of nutritional intervention on TB treatment adherence, prognostic markers, and treatment outcomes (objective 4). Various study designs and statistical analyses were used to address the thesis objectives. A Bayesian model-based geostatistics was used to investigate the geospatial overlap of undernutrition and TB prevalence in Ethiopia (objective 1), using data from national prevalence surveys. A Cox proportional hazard model was performed to assess the effect of undernutrition on TB treatment outcomes using data from a retrospective cohort study in northwest Ethiopia (objective 2). Longitudinal data analysis using a joint model was applied to determine the effect of weight variation over time on MDR-TB treatment outcomes in patients…
abstract: Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading infectious cause of death globally, with an estimated 10.6 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths annually. The emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), characterized by resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin, further complicates the global TB control efforts. The progression from latent to active TB is influenced by various factors including undernutrition. While the individual-level association between TB and undernutrition has been documented, there has been a lack of studies exploring their geospatial co-distribution, particularly in high TB-burden countries like Ethiopia. There was also limited evidence on the impacts of undernutrition or failure to gain weight during follow-up on treatment outcomes among patients with TB and MDR-TB in Ethiopia. Furthermore, there was insufficient conclusive evidence to measure the effects of nutritional intervention on improving adherence to TB treatment and outcomes. This PhD thesis aimed to address these knowledge gaps by investigating the geospatial overlap of undernutrition and TB (objective 1), quantifying the effect of undernutrition and weight change on TB and MDR-TB treatment outcomes (objectives 2 and 3), and assessing the impact of nutritional intervention on TB treatment adherence, prognostic markers, and treatment outcomes (objective 4). Various study designs and statistical analyses were used to address the thesis objectives. A Bayesian model-based geostatistics was used to investigate the geospatial overlap of undernutrition and TB prevalence in Ethiopia (objective 1), using data from national prevalence surveys. A Cox proportional hazard model was performed to assess the effect of undernutrition on TB treatment outcomes using data from a retrospective cohort study in northwest Ethiopia (objective 2). Longitudinal data analysis using a joint model was applied to determine the effect of weight variation over time on MDR-TB treatment outcomes in patients…
author: Shiferaw, Fasil
language: en_AU
date published: 2025
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:07:11Z
provider: Australian Catholic University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian Catholic University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733740473