The impact of performance status on tuberculosis-related death among elderly patients with lung tuberculosis: A competing risk regression analysis

While advanced age is a main prognostic factor in patients with tuberculosis, the factors that specifically affect tuberculosis-related death are unclear because elderly people are at a risk for other age-related lethal diseases. We aimed to assess the impact of performance status on tuberculosis-related death among elderly patients with lung tuberculosis. Elderly patients (≥65 years of age) admitted to our hospital for bacteriologically-diagnosed lung tuberculosis were included, and analyzed the influence of performance status on tuberculosis-related in-hospital death, with non-tuberculosis-related death as a competing risk. Forty and 19 of the 275 patients died from tuberculosis-related causes and non-tuberculosis-related causes, respectively. The tuberculosis-related death group had a greater number of patients with a poor performance status (defined as category 3 and 4 [HR 21.022; 95%CI 2.881-153.414; p = 0.003]), a lower serum albumin level (HR 0.179; 95%CI 0.090-0.359; p < 0.001) and a higher C-reactive protein level (HR1.076; 95%CI 1.026-1.127; p = 0.002). A multivariate competing risk regression analysis showed that a poor performance status (HR 7.311; 95%CI 1.005-53.181; p = 0.049) and low albumin level (HR 0.228; 95%CI 0.099-0.524); p = 0.001) significantly predicted tuberculosis-related death. Performance status can be a useful scale for predicting tuberculosis-related death among elderly patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.