Abstract:

Objective To analyze the epidemic trends and characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB, except for tuberculous pleurisy) in the national students in mainland China (not including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), in order to provide a reference for the effective epidemic control of PTB in students.Methods The PTB reporting data in students from the Infectious Diseases Reporting System (IDRS), Tuberculosis Information Management System (TBIMS) and China Statistical Yearbook were collected from 2014 to 2018 to analyze the spatial, temporal and population distribution of reported PTB in students and the patients with delayed treatment. The total number of the national students in China were 258000000 in 2014, 255810000 in 2015, 259270000 in 2016, 262750000 in 2017 and 268670000 in 2018, respectively.Results A total of 48289 student patients with PTB were reported in 2018 with the reported incidence of 17.97/100000 (48289/268670000), increased by 29.19% ((17.97-13.91)/13.91) in comparison with that in 2014 (13.91/100000, 35881/258000000). Annually, March and April were the peak periods for students to report PTB (the reported cases in the two months from 2014 to 2018 were 4506 and 4521, 4350 and 4252, 4802 and 4110, 4695 and 3810, and 5407 and 4851, respectively). The epidemic incidence of the two months was low in the eastern region (11.64/100000, 12391/106410000) and high in the central (15.82/100000, 13369/84500000) and western regions (28.97/100000, 22529/77760000). In the constituent ratio for all age groups in the reported cases in students in 2018, the highest proportion was at senior high school stage (16-18 age group) with an average of 43.90% (21186/48257), followed by college and junior college stage (19-22 age group) with 31.44% (15172/48257). In 2018, the median time interval (quartile) from the onset of symptoms to the first visit to a medical institution for the student patients with PTB was 13 (3, 33) days, which had no difference with that in 2017 (13 (3, 34) days, Z=-0.31, P=0.753). The delayed treatment rate of patients was 47.38% (20643/43572).Conclusion From 2014 to 2018, the epidemic PTB incidence in students had a rising trend, highly occurred in 16-18 ages, and the epidemic incidence was slightly higher in the western region. The students are still one of the important populations for TB prophylaxis. Therefore, health education should be further developed and the capacity for active monitoring should be enhanced.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Students, Incidence, Epidemiologic study characteristics as topic, Factor analysis, statistical