Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical features of tuberculosis (TB) in terms of gender differences over a ten-year period.
Method: This retrospective cohort study was performed using Sivas Tuberculosis Dispensary 2010- 2019 TB patient records. TB incidence, mortality, drug sensitivity percentages and some clinical characteristics of patients were determined.
Results: The rate of female new patients was 51.4 % and the female to male ratio was 1.05. The gender difference in rates was highest in the 0-19 age group. Most of the cases (49.9 %) were extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) and this rate in female (66.6 %) was significantly higher than in male (33.4 %). The most common extra-pulmonary involvement was the lymphatic system (39.7 %). Complete the disease as a cure (65.7 %), treatment failure (100.0 %) and deaths (66.7 %) due to TB were significantly higher in male. We recorded the drug resistance 9 % for ethambutol, 8.6 % for isoniazid, 4.5 % for streptomycin and 2.8 % for rifampicin and there was no significant difference by gender. The incidences of all TB forms, pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and EPTB showed a decreasing trend in both genders and age groups except for those aged 60 and over in male. TB mortality rate and drug sensitivity percentages were in an increasing trend in both genders.
Conclusions: Significant changes were found in some clinical features of TB according to gender. It is thought that situations arising from gender changes in TB control programs should be considered.