Frequency of tuberculosis among diabetic patients in the People’s Republic of China

Wang, Hong-Tian; Zhang, Jing; Ji, Ling-Chao; You, Shao-Hua; Bai, Yin; Dai, Wei; Wang, Zhong-Yuan

Having surpassed India, the People's Republic of China now has the largest number of DM patients worldwide. 23 The prevalence of DM in the People's Republic of China has increased rapidly from ,1% in the 1980s to 4.5% in 2002 and 9.7% in 2010. 24 The prevalence of pre-DM (a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be classified as full-blown DM) was 15.5%. 24 The People's Republic of China has 92.4 million adults with DM (50.2 million men and 42.2 million women) and 148.2 million adults with pre-DM (76.1 million men and 72.1 million women) over 20 years old. 24 City residents have a higher prevalence of DM than rural residents (11.4% versus 8.2%). 24 In contrast, the prevalence of pre-DM among rural residents is much higher than in city residents. 25 The prevalence of DM increases with increasing age and increasing weight. DM is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is also a well-known risk factor for active TB (doubling or tripling the risk). 25 TB patients with DM also have worse treatment outcomes than those without DM, which delays sputum culture conversion and increases the risk of both death and recurrent disease after successful treatment. 25