title: Prevalence of tuberculin skin test positivity in clinical population in New York City.
abstract: The prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in the various populations of New York City (NYC), a city with a high density of non-US-born persons, is unknown. We examined the prevalence of TST positivity in patients who received a tuberculin skin test (TST) between 1/2002 and 8/2004 at any of 10 NYC health department chest centers. A positive TST was defined as an induration reaction to tuberculin of ≥10 mm. In the study population of 41,022 individuals, prevalence of TST positivity was 24.4% (95%CI = 24.0, 24.8); four times higher among non-US-born persons than US-born (39.5% vs. 8.8%, Prevalence ratio (PR) = 4.5; 95%CI = 4.4, 4.6). Prevalence of TST positivity increased with age in both US and non-US-born persons. Persons from countries with a TB case rate >100/100,000 population had higher prevalence of TST positivity (47% vs. ≤39%), even after controlling for BCG (PR = 1.3, 95%CI = 1.2, 1.4). These findings provide insight into current prevalence of TST positivity in many immigrant populations and will help both clinicians and health departments to target patients for LTBI treatment.
authors.affiliation: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, NY 10279-2600, USA. jli3@health.nyc.gov
authors.forename: Jiehui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Sonal S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Munsiff
authors.forename: Tracy B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Agerton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012867:Skin / Q000276:immunology*; D014373:Tuberculin / Q000302:isolation & purification; D014374:Tuberculin Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014373:Tuberculin