Evaluation of a social protection policy on tuberculosis treatment outcomes: A prospective cohort study
PLOS Medicine·
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002788
- PMID
- 31039158
- PMCID
- PMC6490910
- OpenAlex
- W2943612867
- Study type
- Cohort study
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The authors suggest the cash transfer policy may be a useful intervention to improve tuberculosis treatment outcomes in similar high-burden settings.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study assessed whether a conditional cash transfer policy affects tuberculosis treatment success and default rates among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults.
Study design
A prospective cohort of first-diagnosis pulmonary tuberculosis patients was followed through treatment, with analyses using hierarchical models, propensity score matching, and inverse probability weighting to adjust for individual and health-system confounders.
Population and setting
Adult patients with a first pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis starting treatment at public healthcare facilities in 16 high-burden health departments in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Main findings
Among 941 patients with known status, those registered for the cash transfer had higher reported success (82% vs 69%) and lower default (11% vs 20%). The reported adjusted odds ratio for treatment success was 2.9 (95% CI 2.0–4.3).
Public-health relevance
The authors suggest the cash transfer policy may be a useful intervention to improve tuberculosis treatment outcomes in similar high-burden settings.
Important limitations
The summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata; the original paper is needed for decision-grade interpretation, including assessment of residual confounding, representativeness, and outcome definitions.
GIDS interpretation
The paper is indexed under tuberculosis, Argentina, health policy, and treatment-related classifiers, which may aid discoverability by users searching for socioeconomic interventions and TB outcomes in Latin America.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 11 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.