ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Tuberc.

Sec. Epidemiology of Tuberculosis

Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ftubr.2025.1615486

Trends and Impact of Government Prevention Policies on Pulmonary Tuberculosis Notification and Mortality in Ningbo, China (2004-2021)

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, China
  • 2East China Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 3Ningbo First Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 4Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health threat, with Ningbo reporting over 3,000 annual cases of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). This study analyzes the notification and mortality rates of PTB in Ningbo from 2004 to 2021.We calculated age-standardized annual notification and mortality rates for PTB per 100,000 population and employed Interrupted Time Series regression to evaluate the impact of government policies on these rates.Results: From 2004 to 2021, Ningbo recorded 68,392 PTB cases and 236 deaths.The unstandardized notification and mortality rates were 51.31 and 0.18 per 100,000 population, respectively. Joinpoint trend analysis showed a significant decline in PTB notification from 2007 to 2016 (APC= -7.3%, P <0.05). Although mortality decreased from 2017 to 2021, this reduction was not statistically significant (APC = -20.5%, P =0.106). Interrupted time series analysis indicated that government policies led to an estimated reduction of three cases in age-standardized PTB notification and about 0.025 deaths per 100,000 population.Between 2004 and 2021, Ningbo saw a notable decrease in both the notification and mortality rates of PTB due to effective control measures. To achieve the End TB Strategy targets for 2035, it is crucial to enhance efforts in diagnosing and treating PTB-especially among males, adolescents, and older adults.

Keywords: Notification, Mortality, Joinpoint regression, Interrupted Time Series, Pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB)

Received: 21 Apr 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 He, Lin, Qian, Yao, Li and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Tianfeng He, Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.