ArticlePublic health action2020
Closing the reporting gap for childhood tuberculosis in South Africa: improving hospital referrals and linkages.
Article in Public health action, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating phone call follow-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Epidemiology of Pediatric Tuberculosis in the Western Cape: A Population-Based Study (2017-2023).Pediatrics · 2026Article
- Article
- Interventions connecting young people living in Africa to healthcare; a systematic review using the RE-AIM framework.Frontiers in health services · 2024Review
- Reducing Initial Loss to Follow-up Among People With Bacteriologically Confirmed Tuberculosis: LINKEDin, a Quasi-experimental Study in South Africa.Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Under-Reporting of Tuberculosis Disease among Children and Adolescents in Low and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Review
- Social Determinants of Adherence to Treatment for Tuberculosis Infection and Disease Among Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: A Narrative Review.Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2022Review
- Early interactions with newly diagnosed TB patients in hospital can support linkage to care.Public health action · 2022Article
- Priority Activities in Child and Adolescent Tuberculosis to Close the Policy-Practice Gap in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Provision of Decentralized TB Care Services: A Detect-Treat-Prevent Strategy for Children and Adolescents Affected by TB.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Article
- Molecular bacterial load assay versus culture for monitoring treatment response in adults with tuberculosis.SAGE open medicine · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
settingA referral hospital in Cape Town, Western Cape Province, Republic of South Africa.
objectiveTo measure the impact of a hospital-based referral service (intervention) to reduce initial loss to follow-up among children with tuberculosis (TB) and ensure the completeness of routine TB surveillance data.
designA dedicated TB referral service was established in the paediatric wards at Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town, in 2012. Allocated personnel provided TB education and counselling, TB referral support and weekly telephonic follow-up after hospital discharge. All children identified with TB were matched to electronic TB treatment registers (ETR.Net/EDRWeb). Multivariable logistic regression was used to compare reporting of culture-confirmed and drug-susceptible TB cases before (2007-2009) and during (2012) the intervention.
resultsSuccessful referral with linkage to care was confirmed in 267/272 (98%) and successful reporting in 227/272 (84%) children. Children with drug-susceptible, culture-confirmed TB were significantly more likely to be reported during the intervention period than in the pre-intervention period (OR 2.52, 95%CI 1.33-4.77). The intervention effect remained consistent in multivariable analysis (adjusted OR 2.62; 95%CI 1.31-5.25) after adjusting for age, sex, human immunodeficiency virus status and the presence of TB meningitis.
conclusionsA simple hospital-based TB referral service can reduce initial loss to follow-up and improve recording and reporting of childhood TB in settings with decentralised TB services.
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Registered trials
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