Pre-diagnostic drop out of presumptive TB patients and its associated factors at Bugembe Health Centre IV in Jinja, Uganda

Background: Drop out of presumptive TB individuals before making a final diagnosis poses a danger to the individual and their community. We aimed to determine the proportion of these presumptive TB drop outs and their associated factors in Bugembe Health Centre, Jinja, Uganda. Methods: We used data from the DHIS2, presumptive and laboratory registers of Bugembe Health Centre IV for 2017. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the population characteristics. A modified Poisson regression model via the generalized linear model (GLM) with log link and robust standard errors was used for bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results: Among the 216 registered presumptive TB patients who were less than 1% of patients visiting the outpatients’ department, 40.7% dropped out before final diagnosis was made. Age and HIV status were significantly associated with pre-diagnostic drop out while gender and distance from the health center were not. Conclusion: A high risk to individuals and the community is posed by the significant proportion of presumptive TB pa- tients dropping out before final diagnosis. Health systems managers need to consider interventions targeting young persons, male patients, HIV positive persons. Keywords: Tuberculosis (TB); Pre-diagnostic drop out; Presumptive TB; SORT IT.