Influence of Age on the Repartition and the Evolution of Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis in the Provinces of Laayoune and Tarfaya, Morocco

This work aims to bring out the epidemiological profile of Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (ETB) in the provinces of Laayoune and Tarfaya (Morocco), and to investigate the influence of age on the repartition and the evolution of the ETB types. It consists in a retrospective study based on 721 cases of ETB reported to the Centre of Diagnosis and Treatment of Respiratory Diseases of Laayoune during the period 2006-2012. The mean age in our sample is 35.04 ± 16.63 years old, and the median age is 32 years old. The ETB affects particularly the active population whose age is between 20 and 50 years. The male to female sex-ratio is 1.27. The repartition of patients according to the localization of ETB shows a predominance of pleural and ganglionar localizations with 41% and 32% respectively. The analysis of variance reveals that the Extrapulmonary localization is significantly influenced by age. Moreover, the comparison of means leads to three groups according to the age. Indeed, the oldest patients are preferentially affected by intestinal, urogenital or bone ETB. The repartition of ETB patients according to the evolution show that 63% of them finished their treatment and that 21% were transferred to other health structures. Furthermore, we reported that the age is significantly associated with the evolution type. Also, the comparison of means revealed three groups of age; this implies that deaths in our sample occur preferentially in the oldest patients. In conclusion, more efforts should be showed off to fight more efficiently against this disease that still constitutes a real problem of health in Morocco.