ShelltonMaleka/TB-District-Retention-Analysis

Analysis of socioeconomic and healthcare-system factors associated with drug-susceptible TB patient loss to follow-up across South African districts in 2024. # TB Patient Retention Analysis in South Africa ## Project Overview Tuberculosis (TB) treatment requires patients to remain in continuous care for treatment to be successful. Patients who are lost to follow-up may experience interrupted treatment, making retention an important part of TB control. This project uses district-level South African health data to investigate the factors associated with the inability to retain drug-susceptible TB patients in continuous care. ## Research Question Which variables are most strongly associated with a district's inability to retain drug-susceptible Tuberculosis (TB) patients in continuous care in 2024? The main outcome variable is: TB DS client lost to follow-up rate A higher lost-to-follow-up rate represents poorer patient retention. ## Data Source The analysis uses data extracted from the District Health Barometer (DHB) 2024/25, published by Health Systems Trust. **The final dataset contains:** - 52 South African health districts - 11 variables - 8 numerical explanatory variables - 1 target variable - Province and district identifiers **The explanatory variables considered were:** - TB DS death rate - TB/HIV co-infected clients on ART rate - Percentage of the target tested for TB - Professional nurses per 100 000 population - District Health Services expenditure per capita for the uninsured population - PHC expenditure per PHC headcount - Expenditure per patient day equivalent at district hospitals - Average medical scheme coverage ## Project Workflow The analysis followed the workflow below: ```text District Health Barometer Data ↓ Data Extraction ↓ WHO-Based Data Quality Audit ↓ Data Cleaning and Preprocessing ↓ Exploratory Data Analysis ↓ Correlation Analysis ↓ Multiple Linear Regression ↓ Model Evaluation ↓ Interpretation of TB Patient Retention Factors ``` --- ## Data Quality Audit Before performing the analysis, the dataset was assessed using principles from the World Health Organization Data Quality Review framework. …