Treatment completion among TB patients returned to the community from a large urban jail

Despite the current decline of TB in the general population, the prevalence of TB remains conspicuously higher among inmates. While treatment completion is a key to controlling and preventing drug-resistant TB, it is difficult to be achieved among incarcerated populations due to their social, economic, and behavioral characteristics. This article examined factors associated with treatment completion among jail inmates with TB disease after their return to the community. Retrospective analyses were performed to explore the relationships between demographic, behavioral, incarceration factors, and treatment methods with treatment completion. Hispanics (vs. blacks), those who had children, and those incarcerated for simple charges (vs. drug related charges) were less likely to complete treatment. DOT users were more likely to complete treatment then those who used the self administration method. Inmates whose DOT was administered at a field site were more likely to complete treatment than those whose DOT took place at a clinic or mixed clinic and field. Although mixed DOT might be less expensive than field DOT, it represented no significant improvement over clinic DOT. Treatment methods must employ an outreach strategy to meet each patient's need, considering the broader socioeconomic context.