Abstract: Objective To assess the TB prevalence in rural Jiangsu province, in order to provide scientific evidence for appropriate active screening strategies and intervention measures. Methods With stratified cluster random sampling method，50 out of 887 villages（communities) in Zhangjiagang, Danyang and Taixing cities were sampled. Questionnaire survey and physical examination were conducted for all investigated population, chest X-ray was applied to population ≥15 years old except pregnant women. Totally 157 168 population were investigated and 116 796 were conducted X-ray screening. EpiData 3.1 and Excel 2007 software was used to set up database and SPSS 17.0 for statistic analysis. Results In the investigated population, 1557 people suffered with TB suspicious symptoms, among them 62.4%（972/1557）had cough for more than 2 weeks, and 1622 had chest X-ray abnormality. A total of 165 active TB cases was detected with the crude prevalence rate（detection rate) of active PTB of 141.3/100 000（165/116 796）. Among them, 134 were initial treatment cases (including 78 cases of smear positive) accounting for 81.2%, 31 were retreatment cases(including 31 cases of smear positive) accounting for 18.8%, and 124 were male and 41 were female with the ratio of 3.02 to 1; the prevalence rate of age group ≥65 years（335.1/100 000,61/18 205）was significantly higher than other age groups(15-: 43.6/100 000,16/36 685；40-: 143.0/100 000,88/61 532)(χ²=73.05，P<0.001); 153 cases（92.7%） had chest X-ray abnormality; 79(47.9%) cases got access to timely diagnosis and medical care without delay（within 1 week); 155(93.9%) cases got treatment success; the economic analysis found that the direct cost for detecting one active TB cases by chest X-ray screening is about 31 000 RMB on average.  Conclusion Chest X-ray screening plays an important role in active tuberculosis early detection and treatment, is an important intervention and a useful complement to the passive discovery.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Mass chest X-ray, Radiography, Sampling studies, Jiangsu province