Evidence Hub

The effectiveness of isoniazid preventive treatment among contacts of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: a systematic review and individual-participant meta-analysis

Martinez L, Campbell JI, Linde L, Boulahbal F, Cayla JA, Chakhaia T, Chan PC, Chen C et al.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 2026

2 citations

Abstract

Rationale: Recent empirical research suggests that isoniazid may lead to a risk reduction of incident tuberculosis (TB) among close TB contacts of someone with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).

Objectives: To evaluate the association between isoniazid TB preventive treatment (TPT), compared to no treatment, upon incident TB in household contacts of MDR-TB cases using a large global consortium of TB contact tracing studies.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and individual-participant meta-analysis among observational studies of household contact tracing studies. Participants were included if they were exposed to someone with MDR-TB and were given either 6 months of isoniazid TPT or no TPT. Our primary outcome was incident TB in contacts exposed to TB. We derived adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) using mixed-effects, multivariable survival regression models with study-level random effects. The effectiveness of isoniazid TPT against incident TB was estimated through propensity score matching.

Measurements and main results: We included participant-level data from 6668 contacts exposed to MDR-TB from 17 countries. The effectiveness of isoniazid TPT against incident TB in contacts of MDR-TB was 57% (aHR, 0.43 [95% CI, 0.26-0.71]) and did not appreciably change with adjustment for additional potential confounders. The reduction in incident TB was marginally greater among child (<20 years old) contacts (aHR, 0.51 [95% CI, 0.28-0.92) compared to adult contacts (aHR, 0.69 [95% CI,…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a meta-analysis, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free