{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pgph.0001573","title":"Risk factors for disruptions in tuberculosis care in Uganda during the COVID-19 pandemic","abstract":"BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, TB mortality increased while diagnoses decreased, likely due to care disruption. In March, 2020, Uganda-a country with high TB burden, implemented a COVID-19 lockdown with associated decrease in TB diagnoses. This study aims to examine patient level risk factors for disruption in TB care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda. This retrospective cross-sectional cohort study included six TB clinics in Uganda. Clustered sampling included phases of TB care and three time-periods: pre-lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown. Characteristics of patients with TB care disruption (TBCD), defined as those with > 2 months of symptoms prior to diagnosis or who missed a TB clinic, and those without TB care disruption (non-TBCD) were analyzed between time-periods. 1,624 charts were reviewed; 1322 were contacted, 672 consented and completed phone interview; pre-lockdown (n = 213), lockdown (n = 189) and post-lockdown (n = 270). TBCD occurred in 57% (385/672) of patients. There was an increase in the proportion of urban patients in the TBCD and non-TBCD groups during post-lockdown (p <0.001). There was no difference in demographics, HIV co-infection, socioeconomic status, or distance to TB clinic between TBCD and non-TBCD groups or within TBCD by time-period. There were few differences amongst TBCD and all TB patients by time-period. The increase in urban patients' post-lockdown may represent a portion of urban patients who delayed care until post-lockdown. Insignificant trends suggesting more TBCD amongst those who lived further from clinics and those without HIV-coinfection require more investigation.","journal":"PLOS Global Public Health","year":2023,"id":362271,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9241,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":890116,"name":"Stella Zawedde‐Muyanja","orcid":"0000-0002-8823-7082","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":752401,"name":"Isaac Sekitoleko","orcid":"0000-0002-7951-5458","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":937939,"name":"Mudarshiru Bbuye","orcid":"0000-0002-8635-2925","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1115387,"name":"M. Helwig","orcid":"0009-0003-3860-4168","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":752400,"name":"Roma Padalkar","orcid":"0000-0002-6981-3822","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1115861,"name":"Muhammad Bin Hammad","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1115388,"name":"Dennis A. Hopkinson","orcid":"0000-0002-7161-5972","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":364002,"name":"Trishul Siddharthan","orcid":"0000-0001-9914-1839","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":752399,"name":"Peter Jackson","orcid":"0000-0001-5108-9381","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":33,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:14:19.266946Z","pmid":"37267249","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}