Table 1.
Characteristics of treated tuberculosis patients (n = 72)
| Completed treatment | Ongoing treatment |
Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| n = 42 (%) | N = 30 (%) | n = 72 (%) | |
| Male | 29 (69.0) | 19 (63.3) | 48 (66.7) |
| Age (years, range) | 45.5 (17–75) | 43.4 (17–73) | 46.6 (16–75) |
| Belong to ethnic minority | 32 (76.1) | 20 (66.6) | 38 (52.7) |
| - Lao Thung | 13 (30.9) | 6 (20.0) | 18 (25.0) |
| - Lao Sung | 19 (45.2) | 14 (46.6) | 25 (34.7) |
| Main occupation | |||
| - farmers | 29 (69.0) | 21 (70.0) | 50 (69.4) |
| - no occupation* | 11 (26.1) | 7 (23.3) | 18 (25.0) |
| Education | |||
| - illiterate | 26 (61.9) | 20 (66.6) | 46 (63.4) |
| - primary education | 10 (23.8) | 8 (25.0) | 18 (25.0) |
| - secondary education | 6 (14.2) | 2 (11.1) | 8 (11.1) |
| Mean distance to Health Centre (km) (range) | 5.5 (± 3.6) | 4.0 (1–10) | 4.7 (3.9–5.5) |
| Compliant with treatment | 32 (75.1) | 26 (86.6) | 58 (80.5) |
| - mean duration of treatment before stop (days) | 215.4 (57–240) |
NA | 199 (62–235) |
| Clinical observations | 26 (61.9) | 17 (56.6) | 43 (59.7) |
| - chronic cough** | 20 (47.6) | 17 (56.6) | 37 (51.4) |
| - persistent expectoration*** | 18 (42.8) | 11 (36.6) | 29 (40.3) |
| Weight (kg, range) | 44.16 (± 8.0) | 40.60 (27–54) | 42.7 (22–64) |
| Underweight: BMI < 18.5 | 26 (61.9) | 20 (66.6) | 46 (63.9) |
| - severely underweight: BMI < 16 | 9 (21.4) | 10 (33.33) | 19 (26.4) |
Mean with 95% confidence interval
* Others were students (n = 2), civil servants (n = 1), teachers (n = 1), and retired (n = 1)
** Other symptoms were night sweat (n = 11, 6.5%), and fever (n = 7, 4.1%)
*** More than 3 weeks