Socio-Demographic and Nutritional Status Correlates in Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients in Calabar, Nigeria

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to rank high in contributing to the global disability adjusted life years with 10 million new cases yearly worldwide. Having effective control of TB particularly in endemic communities should be predicated on understanding factors that drive its upsurge.

Objectives: This study assessed the association between socio-demographic factors and nutritional status among adults with pulmonary TB in Calabar, Nigeria.

Methods: A descriptive analysis of a randomized controlled study that enrolled 81 clinically diagnosed pulmonary TB patients that met the eligibility criteria. Data assessed were, socio-demographic, clinical, dietary, anthropometric, haematological and serum concentration of micronutrients. Results were presented in frequencies, percentages, tables and chart. Chi-square (ꭕ2) test was used to determine existence of associations between variables at 5% level, while, Pearson Correlation test was applied to determine the correlation between variables. P-value was used to determine significance of tests.

Results: Using body mass index (BMI) as a proxy of nutritional status, results indicate that 33.4% of patients were undernourished with no discernible gender differences (p=0.254). Income level classification was observed to be statistically significantly associated with undernutrition (p=0.021), with those in the low-income category most at risk. Correlation analysis of key variables indicated that low serum ascorbate, zinc and retinol were independently associated with low BMI. These associations were statistically significant (p<0.05).Singleness was identified as a risk factor for undernutrition (p=0.060). Low functional status proxied by Karnofsky score <50% tended to align more with patients in the low income level category.

Conclusion: Results consistently indicate that patients in the low income category had higher proportion of lower ranges of haemoglobin, protein parameters, serum ascorbate, zinc and retinol concentrations considered deficient. Thus, poverty alleviation strategies should be highly prioritized in TB programming for effective control.