Relationship between nutritional status and treatment outcome among tuberculosis patients receiving the Ni-kshay Mitra food basket at a Tertiary Care Institute in New Delhi, India: A descriptive comparative study

Introduction: Weight gain during anti-tubercular therapy is widely used as a marker of treatment response, and nutritional support schemes such as Ni-kshay Mitra assume that better nutrition yields better outcomes. This relationship has rarely been quantified at individual level in Indian programmatic settings.Materials and Methods: A descriptive comparative study was conducted among 110 drug-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis patients (55 recipients and 55 non-recipients of the Ni-kshay Mitra food basket) at a tertiary care institute in New Delhi from December 2025 to March 2026, by total enumeration. Weight gain was computed from baseline and end-of-treatment weights; outcome was dichotomised per WHO and NTEP criteria as favorable or unfavorable. The relationship was examined using point-biserial correlation and binary logistic regression.Results: A favorable outcome was achieved by 104/110 patients (94.5%): 54/55 recipients (98.2%) and 50/55 non-recipients (90.9%). Mean weight gain was 2.67 ± 1.45 kg among recipients and 1.92 ± 1.71 kg among non-recipients. Weight gain correlated positively but weakly with outcome (r = 0.131, 95% CI: -0.058 to 0.311, p = 0.172). Each additional kilogram gained was associated with higher, non-significant odds of favorable outcome in both groups (recipients: OR 1.44, 95% CI 0.37–5.59; non-recipients: OR 1.32, 95% CI 0.67–2.61). With only six unfavorable events, the analysis was underpowered.Conclusion: Weight gain showed a consistently positive but non-significant association with favorable outcome; recipients gained more weight and achieved higher treatment success than non-recipients. The findings support serial weight monitoring as a low-cost programmatic indicator; adequately powered multicentric studies are needed.