Clinical-Social Profiles Associated with Therapeutic Success in Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Peruvian Cohort

Guevara-Tirado A. · Revista Medica Electronica (2026)

Resumen

Introduction: In Peru, tuberculosis maintains a high burden and social inequities, which demands analytical strategies approaches that consider population heterogeneity. Objective: To identify clinical-social profiles that allow a more complete characterization of pulmonary tuberculosis in a high-incidence district in Lima, Peru. Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive study in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Sociodemographic (age, sex, education, and poverty), behavioral (alcohol and drug use), and clinical (body mass index and cure) variables were included. Non-hierarchical K-means were applied to identify clinical-social groups with similar characteristics. The differences between clusters were evaluated with ANOVA, chi-square tests, and post hoc Tukey test. Validity was checked by Silhouette, Davies-Bouldin, and Calinski-Harabasz indices, linear discriminant analysis and a standardized radar chart. Results: Three different clusters were identified. The adherent profile (n=642) showed higher educational level (96.9%) and the highest healing rate (88.5%). The metabolic profile (n=413) grouped older patients with higher body mass index and an intermediate healing rate (81.6%). The behavioral or social-risk profile (n=195) exhibited 100% history of drug use, higher alcohol consumption (53.3%), and the lowest cure rate (57.9%). Validation (Silhouette=0.24) and discriminant analysis confirmed model stability and internal profiles coherence. Conclusions: Clinical-social stratification allowed to identify three different profiles of patients with tuberculosis, characterized by significant differences in behavioral and educational variables, as well as in the observed cure rates. Los artículos de Revista Médica Electrónica de la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Matanzas se comparten bajo los términos de la Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 4.0.

Instituciones: Universidad Científica del Sur