Diabetes is associated with drug-resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Taiwan

We assessed the association between diabetes mellitus and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Among new patients, diabetes was significantly associated with any resistance to isoniazid excluding multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB; adjusted OR [aOR] 1.88, 95%CI 1.07-3.31), but not with MDR-TB (aOR 0.95, 95%CI 0.34-2.68). Among previously treated patients, diabetes was also significantly associated with INH resistance (aOR 6.76, 95%CI 1.53-29.98) but not with MDR-TB (aOR 1.52, 95%CI 0.59-3.95). We concluded that diabetes was associated with INH resistance and speculated that the sample size of retreatment cases was insufficient to confirm the association between diabetes and MDR-TB.