7. Summary of studies: time to initiate treatment.
| Study | Country | Design | Setting |
Smear Median days (IQR) |
Xpert Median days (IQR) |
Comparison |
| Mupfumi 2014 | Zimbabwe | RCT | specialized hospital | 8 (3 to 23) | 5 (3 to 13) | P = 0.26 |
| Theron 2014a | multiple | RCT | primary healthcare facilities | 15% (115/178) | 23% (168/744) | P = 0.0002 |
| Churchyard 2015 | South Africa | cluster‐RCT | primary healthcare facility | 10 | 7 | |
| Cox 2014 | South Africa | cluster‐RCT | primary healthcare facility | 8 (2 to 27) | 4 (2 to 8) | HR 0.76 (0.63 to 0.92) P = 0.005 |
| Agizew 2019a | Botwsana | stepped‐ wedge | public HIV clinics | 22 (3 to 51) | 6 (2 to 17) | P = 0.005 |
| Durovni 2014 | Brazil | stepped‐wedge | clinics using laboratories | 11.4 (8.5 to 14.5) | 8.1 (5.4 to 9.3) | P = 0.04 |
| Van den Handel 2015 | South Africa | before/after | district, sub‐district, and primary healthcare facilities | 11.5 (6 to 24) | 1 (0 to 2) | |
| Yoon 2012 | Uganda | before/after | national referral hospital | 1 (0 to 5) | 0 (0 to 2) | P = 0.06 |
| Schmidt 2017 | South Africa | before/after | primary healthcare facilities | 5 (2 to 14) | 4 (2 to 8) | P < 0.001 |
| van Kampen 2015 | Indonesia | before/after | drug‐resistant TB clinics | 42 (25 to 55) | 15 (7 to 51) | P < 0.001 |
HR: hazard ratio IQR: interquartile range RCT: randomized controlled trial TB: tuberculosis
Theron 2014a reported the proportion of participants initiating treatment on the day of diagnosis.
Di Tanna 2019 included an individual participant data (IPD) meta‐analysis for time to treatment for Churchyard 2015; Cox 2014; Mupfumi 2014; and Theron 2014a. The HR was estimated to be 1.00 (95% CI 0.75 to 1.32) for Xpert MTB/RIF compared to smear microscopy, adjusting for age and sex.