Table 1.
Definitions of this study.
| Variables | Definitions |
|---|---|
| MDR-TB case | A patient infected with TB resistant to at least H and R |
| Successful treatment | It is defined as follows: (1) previous PTB patients with sputum positive (such as smear-positive, Xpert-positive, and culture-positive) are cured (i.e., patients are with a negative result from the sputum examination) after a course of treatment; (2) previous PTB patients with sputum negative (i.e., smear-negative, Xpert-negative, and culture-negative) have completed a treatment course and showed a significant improvement on the typical pathology of a chest X-ray after a course of treatment |
| Unsuccessful treatment | Refers to previous PTB cases who are not cured or have not significantly improved on the typical pathology of a chest X-ray after a course of treatment, or have not completed a treatment course (such as patients with loss to follow-up and discontinued therapy) |
| RPTPs | Including initial treatment failure patients (i.e., during a treatment course, NDPPs with sputum positive are still the sputum examination with a positive result at the end of the 5th month or after a course of treatment), relapse patients (i.e., the PTB recrudesces after NDPPs are cured or have completed a treatment course), returned patients (i.e., re-entry after the abandonment treatment), chronic patients, and other (such as loss to follow-up, discontinued therapy, and unknown or undocumented treatment outcome) patients |
| CPTBT | After a period of anti-TB treatment, the treatment result of a patient is represented as the successful treatment or unsuccessful treatment |
| Individuals with CPTBT | Including individuals with completing NDPPs treatment (CNDT) and individuals with completing RPTPs treatment (CRT) |
| Incident MDR-TB | An MDR-TB case is confirmed from previous PTB treatment starting to the end date of the study |
| Non-incident MDR-TB | The status of MDR-TB has not happened from previous PTB treatment starting to the end date of the study |
| Low-income level | The economy income of a family (i.e., below middle-income level) is less than RMB 150,000 Yuan during a year |
| Middle level and above income | The economy income of a family is more than or equal to RMB 150,000 Yuan during a year |
| High-risk occupation | Including migrant worker, worker, jobless and vagrant persons |
| Non-high-risk occupation | Including farmers, teacher, pupils, business services, nurses and nannies, waiters, business services, hospital staffs, herdsmen, fisherman, seafarers and long-distance drivers, official staffs, and being retired |
| TB case finding | The TB screening (i.e., early finding suspected or confirmed cases) is performed through active modes (i.e., initiatively clinical consultation, recommend based on symptoms, and referral and tracing of PTB suspects reported) and passive modes (such as physical examination, contact examination, and differential diagnosis of other diseases) according to results of the symptom monitoring or chest-X-ray or chest computed tomography or laboratory examination |
| Standardized treatment course of TB cases | Including 6-month course of NDPPs treatment and 8-month course of RPTPs treatment (i.e., standardized treatment time) |
| Lost to follow-up | Treatment interrupted for at least two consecutive months |
| A history of direct contact | Direct contact with MDR-TB patients during the 3 months before illness onset |
| Frequencies of chest X-ray examination (FCXE) | Refers to the frequency of chest X-ray examination (i.e., greater than 4 times are classified as excellent; the moderate FCXE is defined as the frequency between 3 and 4 times; less than 3 times are classified as poor) during a course of treatment and after the CPTBT. For example, PTB patients usually need to be followed up by the chest X-ray scanning for 4 times during a course of treatment, and be followed up once a year by the chest X-ray scanning after the CPTBT in China |
| 2HRZE/4HR | NDPPs are started on first-line drug therapy consisting of 2 months of R, H, E and Z, and followed by 4 months of R and H; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is a daily dosing throughout therapy |
| FDC-2HRZE/4HR | NDPPs are started on first-line drug therapy consisting of 2 months of R, H, E and Z, and followed by 4 months of R and H; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is a daily dosing throughout therapy; FDC formulations were used |
| 2H3R3Z3/4H3R3 | NDPPs are started on first-line drug therapy consisting of 2 months of R, H and Z, and followed by 4 months of R and H; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is three-times-weekly dosing throughout therapy |
| 2H3R3Z3E3/4H3R3 | NDPPs are started on first-line drug therapy consisting of 2 months of R, H, E and Z, and followed by 4 months of R and H; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is three-times-weekly dosing throughout therapy |
| 2HREZ/4H3R3 | NDPPs are started on first-line drug therapy consisting of 2 months of R, H, E and Z, and followed by 4 months of R and H; new PTB patients may receive a daily intensive phase followed by a three-times weekly continuation phase |
| 2HRZES/6HRE | RPTPs without R resistance detected on Xpert are started on WHO guidelines, i.e., 2 months of R, H, E, Z and S, and followed by 6 months of R, H and E; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is a daily dosing throughout therapy |
| 3HRZE/6HRE | RPTPs without R resistance detected on Xpert are started on WHO guidelines, i.e., 3 months of R, H, E and Z, and followed by 6 months of R, H and E; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is a daily dosing throughout therapy |
| 3HRZES/6HRE | RPTPs without R resistance detected on Xpert are started on WHO guidelines, i.e., 3 months of R, H, E, Z and S, and followed by 6 months of R, H and E; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is a daily dosing throughout therapy |
| 2H3R3Z3E3S3/6H3R3E3 | RPTPs without R resistance detected on Xpert are started on WHO guidelines, i.e., 2 months of R, H, E, Z and S, and followed by 6 months of R, H and E; the dosing frequency of TB treatment is three-times-weekly dosing throughout therapy |
| Individualized treatment regimens | Clinic doctors develop the individualized therapeutic schedule including 4–6 drugs (typically including a fluoroquinolone and/or injectable secondline drug and three or four first-line drugs therapy) based on clinical experience |
MDR-TB: multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; TB: tuberculosis; PTB: pulmonary tuberculosis; CPTBT: completing PTB treatment; NDPPs: newly diagnosed pulmonary TB patients; RPTPs: Re-treated pulmonary TB patients; CNDT: completing NDPPs treatment; CRT: completing RPTPs treatment; FDC: fixed-dose combination; H: isoniazid; R: rifampicin; Z: pyrazinamide; E: ethambutol; S: streptomycin; WHO: World Health Organization.