Estimating the impact of the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment outcomes in Southeastern City in Iran: an interrupted time series analysis of the preceding 10 years of ecological data

• Published in: BMC health services research 2024-11, Vol.24 (1), p.1489-7, Article 1489
• Main Authors: Sharafi, Mehdi, TalebiMoghaddam, Maryam, Narouee, Sakineh, Heiran, Alireza, Khaleghi, Mohsen, Mouseli, Ali, Amiri, Zahra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis; Care and treatment; Clinical outcomes; COVID-19; COVID-19 - diagnosis; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Diagnosis; Disease transmission; Epidemics; Extrapulmonary TB; Female; Humans; Influence; Interrupted time series; Interrupted Time Series Analysis; Iran; Iran - epidemiology; Male; Medical diagnosis; Pandemics; Patient compliance; Patient outcomes; Pulmonary TB; Quarantine; Quasi-poisson regression; Relative risk; SARS-CoV-2; Statistics; Time series; Treatment Outcome; Trends; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis - diagnosis; Tuberculosis - drug therapy; Tuberculosis - epidemiology
• ISSN: 1472-6963; 1472-6963
• DOI: 10.1186/s12913-024-11959-0

With shared modes of transmission and clinical symptoms the convergence of COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB) might lead to reduced diagnosis and detection of TB, which is challenging for healthcare systems already strained by the pandemic's reach. This ecological study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB surveillance over the first 2 years of the pandemic (March 2020 to February 2022) in southeastern Iran. Interrupted Time Series (ITS) analysis with the quasi-Poisson regression models was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) of TB diagnosis and treatment outcome counts, stratified by gender, case definition, involvement type, and treatment outcomes. The ITS analyses showed a significant decrease in TB total cases (RR: 0.622 [95% CI: 0.487, 0.793], P