Prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis in India: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program was started in India in 1997. There has been no nationwide survey to assess the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature to provide an estimate of the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis in India. Several databases including Medline, Embase, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were searched for studies published between January 1, 1997, and December 31, 2018, which reported the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis. Community-based cross-sectional studies conducted among population aged 15 years and above were included. Summary estimates were calculated using random effects models. We identified 13 articles with 16 individual studies having screened 961,633 individuals for pulmonary tuberculosis. The pooled prevalence of bacteriologically positive pulmonary tuberculosis was 295.9 (95% confidence interval: 201.1-390.6) per 100,000 population. The prevalence was higher among males than females and in rural areas compared to urban areas. The pooled prevalence of culture-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (277.8/100,000 population) was higher than smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis (196.6/100,000 population). The pooled prevalence of bacteriologically positive pulmonary tuberculosis in sensitivity analysis was 186.6/100,000 population. In all these estimates, heterogeneity remained high and significant publication bias was observed. The prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis varied based on sex and distribution of population in rural and urban areas. There is a need of nationwide population-based survey to estimate the burden of tuberculosis to inform control measures and facilitate monitoring and evaluation.