Diabetes Mellitus as a Risk Factor for Drug Resistance Tuberculosis: A Retrospective Cohort Study at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah

Background: The association between tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM) is re-emerging with the epidemic of type II diabetes. Both TB and DM were of the top 10 causes of death.[1] This study explores diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for developing the different antitubercular drug-resistant (DR) patterns among TB patients.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study has been conducted on all TB cases reported to the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, between January 2012 to January 2021. All culture-confirmed and PCR-positive TB cases were included in this study. Categorical baseline characteristic of TB patient has been compared with DM status by using Fisher's exact and Pearson chi-square test. The univariable and multivariable logistic regression model was used to estimate the association between DM and different drug resistance patterns.

Results: Of the total 695 diagnosed TB patients, 92 (13.24%) are resistant to 1st line anti TB drugs. Among 92 DR-TB patients, 36 (39.13%) are diabetic. The percentage of different patterns of DR-TB with DM, in the case of mono DR (12.09%), poly DR (4.19%) MDR (0.547%). As a risk factor, DM has a significant association with DR-TB, mono drug-resistant, and pyrazinamide-resistant TB (P-value <0.05). The MDR and PDR separately do not show any significant association with DM, but for further analysis, it shows a significant association with DM when we combined.

Conclusion: Our study identified diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for developing DR-TB. Better management of DM and TB infection caring programs among DM patients might improve TB control and prevent DR-TB development in KSA.