Abstract:

Objective To analyze the incidence characteristics of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) among students in Shandong Province from 2011 to 2016.Methods The number of reported PTB, the number of reported cases with smear-positive PTB, the number of students in all age groups, and the number of reported cases with different occupations among students in Shandong Province from 2011 to 2016 were obtained based on “China Disease Prevention and Control Information System and Tuberculosis Information Management System”, meanwhile, the PTB data of students in 15 cities of Shandong Province were collected from the “Shandong Provincial Tuberculosis Surveillance Report”. Then descriptive analysis of the epidemiological characteristics of PTB was performed among students in Shandong Province from 2011 to 2016.Results The reported incidence of PTB among students declined from 2011 to 2016 with a statistically significant difference (χ ²=42.94, P＜0.05). The reported incidence of PTB among students was 9.68/100000 (1423 cases) and 7.87/100000 (1178 cases) in 2011 and 2016, respectively; and the reported incidence of smear-positive PTB was 2.41/100000 (355 cases) and 1.29/100000 (193 cases) in 2011 and 2016, respectively. The reported incidence of PTB and smear-positive PTB decreased by 18.70% and 46.47%, respectively. When stratified by age, the highest incidence was found in the 15-24 age group, with an average incidence of 89.84% (7103/7906). The reported incidence of PTB in male students was 60.83% (4809/7905), which was higher than that in females (39.17% (3096/7905)). The top four cities with the highest annual average incidence of PTB among the 15 cities were Ji’nan (184 cases), Weifang (166 cases), Yantai (98 cases), and Linyi (81 cases), with annual average proportion of 9.03%, 6.60%, 4.82%, and 1.72%, respectively.Conclusion From 2011 to 2016, the PTB epidemic among students in Shandong Province shows a declining trend year by year. The prevention and control campaigns of PTB in schools exert positive effects. The collaboration between schools and the public health department should be strengthened to further improve the prevention and control of PTB

Key words: Tuberculosis, pulmonary, Students, Incidence, Epidemiologic measurements, Data interpretation, statistical