Abstract: Objective To analyze epidemic characteristics of tuberculosis among students, and to provide the evidence for TB prevention and control strategy.  Methods We collected the students’ pulmonary TB reporting data from the Infectious Diseases Reporting System (IDRS) from 2008 to 2013. The number of students were 7 813 134, 7 618 213, 7 438 600, 7 200 128, 6 778 025 and 6 465 627 respectively from 2008 to 2013 in Shaanxi province. We implemented a descriptive statistics method to analyze epidemic characteristics of students TB, and used Chi-square and trend Chi-square test to compare rates.P<0.05 is considered significant difference.  Results The reported numbers of students TB from 2008 to 2013 were 3947, 3205, 2418, 1637, 1631 and 1410 respectively. The incidence of students TB from 2008 to 2013 were 50.52/100 000, 42.07/100 000, 32.51/100 000, 22.74/100 000, 24.06/100 000, and 21.81/100 000 respectively, which were declined by an average of 15.47% annually (χ²_trend=1382.68，P<0.05)；At the same time，the reported number of smear positive students PTB were 764, 500, 413, 269, 193 and 138 respectively with the incidence of 9.78/100 000, 6.56/100 000, 5.55/100 000, 3.74/100 000, 2.85/100 000 and 2.13/100 000 respectively, declining by annual average of 26.28% (χ² _trend=520.61，P<0.05). The proportion of students TB in the whole patients decreased from 12.07%（3947/32 702）in 2008 to 6.17%（1410/22 869）in 2013（χ²=1023.15，P<0.05）. The number of reported students TB was highest in each spring, especially in March with an average of 312 cases, a little rise in autumn and reported the least in December, July and August each year with an average of 147 monthly. The top three students TB incidence city was Yulin (103.38/100 000), Yan’an (52.21/100 000), Tongchuan (51.48/100 000) from 2008 to 2013. A total of 5696 cases of student PTB were reported in 18 to 20 years old group, accounting for 39.98% in the whole TB patients. The male to female sex ratio was 1.43∶1.  Conclusion The incidence of reported students TB had a declining trend from 2008 to 2013 in Shaanxi province. The number of reported students TB peaked in spring. The incidence of reported students TB in northern part of Shaanxi was highest, male higher than female. Students in 18 to 20 years old were the key population for TB prevention.

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary/prevention &, control, Students, Epidemiologic studies, Shaanxi province