HIV, malnutrition, and noncommunicable disease epidemics among tuberculosis-affected households in east and southern Africa: A cross-sectional analysis of the ERASE-TB cohort
PLOS Medicine·
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004452
- PMID
- 39283906
- PMCID
- PMC11441706
- OpenAlex
- W4402582441
- Study type
- Cohort study
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The paper presents TB screening as a possible point to find and address other health problems in affected households. It frames integrated approaches as a way to identify people at higher risk and connect them with preventive or treatment services.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study aimed to estimate how common HIV, nutritional problems, and noncommunicable diseases were among people living in tuberculosis-affected households in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. It also examined overlap of conditions within individuals and clustering within households.
Study design
This was a cross-sectional analysis nested within a multicountry cohort study. Household contacts aged 10 years or older were screened for tuberculosis, HIV, nutrition-related conditions, and selected noncommunicable diseases.
Population and setting
The analysis included household members from tuberculosis-affected households in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Among 2,109 recruited contacts, 1,958 with complete data from 786 households were analyzed; most were female and the median age was 27 years.
Main findings
The abstract reports substantial coexisting health burdens in these households, including HIV, chronic lung disease, anaemia, underweight, overweight or obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. It states that nearly half had at least one modifiable tuberculosis risk factor, about one in four adults had multimorbidity, and most people with NCDs were not previously diagnosed or treated.
Public-health relevance
The paper presents TB screening as a possible point to find and address other health problems in affected households. It frames integrated approaches as a way to identify people at higher risk and connect them with preventive or treatment services.
Important limitations
The abstract notes that diabetes classification relied on point-of-care HbA1c and hypertension was defined using measurements from a single day. More broadly, this summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata and would need the full paper for decision-grade interpretation.
GIDS interpretation
This article is discoverable as a peer-reviewed PLOS Medicine report on tuberculosis-affected households in three African countries, indexed with tuberculosis and HIV-related topics. The supplied metadata support its relevance as background evidence, but they do not indicate any live surveillance signal.
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 9 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.