[Compliance of antituberculosis therapy among ex-inmates in the Madrid area]

The inmate population is not a tight compartment without communication with the community but there is a flow of persons and thus of health problems. The high incidence of tuberculosis among inmates is therefore of concern for the Public Health System.

The outcomes of antituberculosis treatment among ex-inmates released from prison in 1987 in the Madrid Area were evaluated and compared with those who remained in jail on treatment. Individuals who met the case definition of tuberculosis were included in the study. The outcome was defined as the individual status one year after the beginning of therapy. To determine the association between the study variables with outcome, odds ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence intervals were used. The Chi2 test was used to determine the statistical significance.

Differences between outcomes of individuals in the two groups were observed: 69.7% of inmates had completed their therapy compared with 20.5% of ex-inmates. Treatment had to be prolonged in 15.2% of inmates compared with 46.2% in ex-inmates. The only predictor associated with therapy completion one year after the beginning was imprisonment, as OR for not having completed therapy for ex-inmates was almost 13 times higher (OR=12.94; 95% IC, 3.38-13.10) than those in jail.

Special strategies should be developed that assure clinical cure of persons with factors related to non-compliance.