title: Risk of incident active tuberculosis and use of corticosteroids.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between corticosteroid use and risk of active tuberculosis (TB) disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a population-based nested case-control study based on Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database between January 1999 and December 2011. Each case of incident active TB was matched to 100 controls using a risk-set sampling scheme.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From a participant cohort of 1 million, 6229 cases of new active TB and 622,900 controls were identified. Current, recent, past, ever and chronic use of corticosteroids were associated with an increased risk of developing incident active TB, with adjusted rate ratios of respectively 2.76 (95%CI 2.44-3.11), 1.99 (95%CI 1.73-2.31), 1.17 (95%CI 1.06-1.29), 1.60 (95%CI 1.49-1.72), and 1.58 (95%CI 1.43-1.75). For subgroup analysis, the increased risk of TB in chronic corticosteroids users was substantially higher in subjects aged ≤70 years and female subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this relatively high TB prevalence setting, we found that use of corticosteroids was associated with an increased risk of TB. Current use of corticosteroids was associated with the highest risk of TB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: M-T G
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine, Taipei Veteran General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Chang-Gung University Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Chang-Gung University Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Emergency Medicine and General Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Yunlin Branch, Douliou, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C-C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids