NATIONWIDE RANDOM SURVEY FOR THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS IN 1990
(Abstract)
by
Dr Duanmu Hong Jju
and
Dr Qian Yuan Fu
National Tuberculosis Control Center
Ministry of Health
Beijing, China
Three epidemiological sampling survey for tuberculosis had been conducted in the country since 1979.
The first randomized sampling survey for tuberculosis was conducted in 29 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in 1979. The results of the first survey provide a basic figures of the national and provincial tuberculosis prevalence.
In order to identify the implementation of tuberculosis control services and the epidemiological trend, the second epidemiological survey was carried 1984/85. The second survey revealed the magnitude and trend of tuberculosis in the country and relevant provinces. It is also a periodic assessment and evaluation of the implementation of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme. According to the results of these two surveys, the annual reduction rate of the prevalence of active pulmonary tuberculosis and smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis were 4.7% and 3.2% respectively. The magnitude of tuberculosis are quite different among provinces and the speed of decline was slow.
In order to evaluate the effect of the implementation of the first "National Tuberculosis Control Programme" in provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions and to get the reliable figures for designing the second "National Tuberculosis Control Programme" with the objectives of accelerating the speed of tuberculosis control in the last ten years of the 20 centry, the third nationwide random survey was carried out in early 1990 and was completed in December 1990.
DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SURVEY
The multi-siratified grouping random sampling method was still used in this survey. Disproportional sampling was used among provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities but proportional sampling was used inside the provinces(cities).
In order to assure that the data and results of this survey would be comparable with the past two surveys, the designing, investigation items, method of investigation and examination as well as the standard were all corresponding to the past two surveys. However, two new investigation items -sociological study on tuberculosis and infection of environmental mycobacteria were added based on the practical requirement of the present tuberculosis control services.
1.Situation of Sampling and Investigation
The general situation of sampling and investigation were shown in Table 1.
There were 928 investigation points involved in this nationwide surveys. Jiangsu Province had the most number of investigation points-46 and Qinghai had the least-12.
The percentage of investigation points in the city were 10.0%, 14.9% and 13.0% in the first (1979), second (1984/85) and third (1990) survey respectively.
Due to the extension of reform and open policy in city and countryside, the mobile population in both city and countryside in this survey was significantly increased than past surveys. However, the examination rate in the survey was as high as 97.9% as shown in Table 2.
RESULTS OF SURVEY
? TUBERCULOSIS MORBIDITY
1. Prevalence of Pulmonary Tuberculosis
(1) Prevalence of Active, Bacteriological Positive and Smear positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis
The population actually examined in this survey numbered 1,461,190. A total of 7,165 active pulmonary tuberculosis patients, 2,389 bacteriological positive patients and 1,827 smear positive patients were detected. After adjustment with weighting method, the weighted prevalence of active pulmonary tuberculosis, bacteriological positive pulmonary tuberculosis and smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis were 523/100,000, 177/100,000 and
