Grant: Project Grant

One in fifty people alive today have survived tuberculosis (TB). Recent studies show TB survivors face higher death rates and worse health and financial outcomes. However, most research treats TB as a short-term illness that ends when patients are "cured." There is little research on the long-term health and financial effects of TB, especially on problems affecting the lungs. We will work with TB clinics across Canada to study how TB affects people's health and finances with the aim to improve care for people affected by TB and learn more about why some survivors have worse lung problems than others. Our goals are to compare the health and financial outcomes of people with TB and healthy people, using surveys, chest X-rays and CT scans, and lung function tests to track differences over time, and to create recommendations for post-TB care that meets the needs of both patients and doctors, by using information from our study and interviews with patients, their families, and healthcare workers. To accomplish this, we will study people with TB and healthy people at research centers in BC, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. People 6 years and older with TB can join the study. People who visit TB clinics but don't have TB will be our comparison group. We will follow participants for 24 months, doing surveys and tests at months 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24. At each visit, we will ask about costs, quality of life, and breathing symptoms like breathlessness. We will also do fitness tests, breathing tests, and chest scans. We will interview healthcare professionals, patients, and their families to learn what kind of care TB survivors need and use this information to create a care plan for TB survivors. We plan to study 365 people with TB and 365 healthy people. Overall, this research will help us understand the long-term effects of TB and how to address them while our care plan will help current and future TB survivors manage their health after treatment.