Performance measurement of a Canadian provincial tuberculosis programme: Manitoba, 2008-2012

Performance measurement assists tuberculosis (TB) programmes in understanding areas of strength and weakness, and planning for improvements. Canada currently does not have a national comprehensive system for the measurement and analysis of TB programme performance.

To analyse the performance of a Canadian provincial TB programme using measures and targets based on those published by the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control for 2015.

Using provincial surveillance data from the Canadian province of Manitoba, we analysed key programme performance outcome measures (treatment completion, early detection, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] testing, paediatric TB, retreatment, and contact elicitation and assessment) for people diagnosed with TB between 2008 and 2010.

Significant outcome variation was found between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations as well as within populations. The reporting rate of HIV testing was low. High rates of paediatric TB among Indigenous populations, particularly in rural areas, were found. Significantly better performance in HIV testing and reporting as well as in contact investigation was found for rural compared with urban Indigenous populations. Foreign-born persons had the lowest contact assessment rate.

This study of TB programme performance in Manitoba demonstrates the viability of the approach in the Canadian context, and could help to identify key areas for TB programme improvement.