Epidemiological Studies of Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Summary
Epidemiological investigations of pulmonary tuberculosis encompass a range of quantitative and observational methods aimed at understanding the distribution, determinants and trends of disease occurrence. These studies measure incidence and prevalence, assess the completeness and timeliness of case notification, and identify demographic, social and environmental risk factors. Common approaches include population‐based prevalence surveys, analysis of routine surveillance data, inventory and capture–recapture studies to estimate under‐reporting, and molecular epidemiology to trace transmission chains and drug‐resistance patterns. Work in this field has elucidated how socioeconomic deprivation, HIV co-infection and ageing populations shape the burden of disease. Moreover, spatial analysis has highlighted regional clusters that guide targeted interventions. By quantifying multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis burden, modelling studies inform resource allocation and forecast future trends under different control scenarios. Collectively, these efforts underpin global strategies for case detection, treatment scale-up and elimination, while revealing gaps in surveillance systems and underscoring the need for integrated public health responses.
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Epidemiological Studies of Pulmonary Tuberculosis publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in epidemiological studies of pulmonary tuberculosis across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Incidence: number of new cases occurring in a specified period per unit population.
Prevalence: total number of existing cases within a population at a given time per unit population.
Under-reporting: failure to notify diagnosed tuberculosis cases to public health surveillance systems.
Under-registering: failure to enter diagnosed cases into national tuberculosis information management systems.
Capture–recapture method: statistical approach using overlapping data sources to estimate the true number of cases.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB): disease caused by strains resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin.
Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB): MDR-TB that is also resistant to key second-line drugs, including fluoroquinolones and injectables.
References
- Inventory study on completeness of tuberculosis case notifications in Poland in 2018. Eurosurveillance (2024).
- Incomplete tuberculosis reporting and registration to the surveillance system in southwestern China of Yunnan Province: an inventory survey. BMC Public Health (2024).
- Global trends in the incidence rates of MDR and XDR tuberculosis: Findings from the global burden of disease study 2019. Frontiers in Pharmacology (2023).
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