Purpose: To study compliance with INH prophylaxis in a municipal hospital setting. Method: A retrospective analysis of 500 clinic patients who were started on INH chemoprophylaxis over a five year period was done. The setting was an inner city hospital chest clinic with a predominant immigrant population. Results: The age distribution of the groups was as follows: 1-10 (14.5%); 11-20 (21%), 21-30 (26.5%); 31-40 (26%); > 41 (12%). Two hundred seventy three were females and 227 were males. Eighty percent of them were foreign born and 20% were born in the U.S. The breakdown was as follows: Asian-30%, Latin American-27%, European/Russian-25%, Haitian-15%, African-2%, Arabic-1%. Out of a total of 500 cases, 410 (82%) completed six months of prophylaxis. The completion rate in the immigrant group was 81% compared with the U.S. born group of patients who had a completion rate of 86%. Of the 90 patients who did not complete therapy, 51 were females and 39 were males. The most common reason for non-completion of therapy was patient non-compliance in 85% (67/90), INH toxicity as manifested by elevated liver function tests (LFT's) in 9% (8/90). The most common side effect observed was elevation of LFT's in 8/500 patients giving an incidence of 1.6% and rash in 4/500 patients (0.8%) and non-specific G.I. symptoms in 4/500 patients (0.8%). Conclusion: INH prophylaxis appears to be a safe method of preventing reactivation and spread of tuberculosis. Our patient group appears to be very conscientious about taking INH prophylaxis with completion rates similar in both the immigrant as well as U.S. born patients.

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