Pulmonary tuberculosis and deprivation in hospitalised patients in Scotland

During the last decades tuberculosis re-emerged in almost all over the world, in both developed and developing countries. Many risk factors were implicated to explain the re-emergences including the HIV epidemic. The aim of the study was to explore if tuberculosis is related with poverty in Scotland utilising routinely collected hospital discharge data for patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and postcode-derived Carstairs deprivation scores. The Carstairs and Morris index is composed of four indicators which were judged to represent material disadvantage in the population. A positive correlation was found between the cumulative incidence rate for hospitalised patients within each Health Board and the Carstairs deprivation score (r = 0.76, p < 0.01). A similar correlation was found between the cumulative incidence rate and the deprivation scores within each postcode sector (r = 0.47, p < 0.0001). These results supports findings by other researchers that poverty and tuberculosis are related, and might be one explanation for the recent re-emergence of tuberculosis.