Health related quality of life of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis patients in Yemen

To compare the health related quality of life (HRQoL) between pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis (PTB and EPTB) patients at pre- and post-intensive phases of treatment. A total of 173 PTB and 160 EPTB patients were selected from the TB centers in Sana'a, Yemen. The patients were given DR-12 questionnaire, measuring three domains: symptoms, life activities and social activities. DR-12 was subjected for internal consistency, reliability and linguistic validation. Quality of life was measured at onset, after one month, and at the end of intensive phase of treatment. Patients with PTB had significantly worse HRQoL score compared to EPTB (P < 0.05). The greatest difference was observed in the dimension reflecting symptoms, during the intensive phase. The improvement in HRQoL for both PTB and EPTB patients for the three domains, after one month and at the end of intensive phase compared to the baseline were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The HRQoL did not improve in PTB patients who failed to convert at the end of the intensive phase compared to the first month. At baseline, PTB patients have significantly lower HRQoL than EPTB. Both PTB and EPTB patients significantly improved after onset of treatment. The converted PTB patients improved in symptoms as compared to the non converted PTB patients.