Assessing trends and predictors of tuberculosis in Taiwan

BMC Public Health

Min-Pei Ling²  Szu-Chieh Chen³  Chia-Pin Chio¹  Yi-Jun Lin¹  Yi-Hsien Cheng¹  Tang-Luen Huang¹  Nan-Hung Hsieh¹  Chung-Min Liao¹ 

[1]Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan 10617, Republic of China

[2]Department of Health Risk Management, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan 40201, Republic of China

[3]Department of Family and Community Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan 40242, Republic of China

关键词: Taiwan;    Poisson regression model;    Aboriginal health;    Weather;    Seasonality;    Tuberculosis;   

Others  :  1163945
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-29

 received in 2011-09-20, accepted in 2012-01-12,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Variety of environmental and individual factors can cause tuberculosis (TB) incidence change. The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics of TB trends in the period 2004 - 2008 in Taiwan by month, year, gender, age, temperature, seasonality, and aborigines.

Methods

The generalized regression models were used to examine the potential predictors for the monthly TB incidence in regional and national scales.

Results

We found that (i) in Taiwan the average TB incidence was 68 per 100,000 population with mortality rate of 0.036 person^-1 yr^-1, (ii) the highest TB incidence rate was found in eastern Taiwan (116 per 100,000 population) with the largest proportion of TB relapse cases (8.17%), (iii) seasonality, aborigines, gender, and age had a consistent and dominant role in constructing TB incidence patterns in Taiwan, and (iv) gender, time trend, and 2-month lag maximum temperature showed strong association with TB trends in aboriginal subpopulations.

Conclusions

The proposed Poisson regression model is capable of forecasting patterns of TB incidence at regional and national scales. This study suggested that assessment of TB trends in eastern Taiwan presents an important opportunity for understanding the time-series dynamics and control of TB infections, given that this is the typical host demography in regions where these infections remain major public health problems.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Liao et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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