Latent Tuberculosis Infection among a Large Cohort of Medical Students at a Teaching Hospital in Italy
Table 1
Demographic, epidemiological, and clinical characteristics of a cohort of medical students () trained at a regional tertiary adult acute care reference hospital in Italy.
Variables
%
Total number of participants in the study
1302
100
Mean age, year (SD)
22.4 (2.4)
Gender
Male
560
43.0
Female
742
57.0
Nationality
Italian
1226
94.2
Foreign
76
5.8
Born in a high TB incidence country*
No
1281
98.4
Yes
21
1.6
Year of attendance
First
219
16.8
Second
287
22.0
Third
186
14.3
Fourth
262
20.1
Fifth
183
14.1
Sixth
165
12.7
Level of training
Preclinical
692
53.2
Clinical
610
46.8
BCG immunization
No
1255
96.4
Yes
47
3.6
Previous exposure to active TB case
No
1208
92.8
Household
13
1.0
Professional
63
4.8
Unknown
18
1.4
TST result
Negative
1291
99.2
Positive
11
0.8
SD: standard deviation. TB: tuberculosis. BCG: Bacille Calmette-Guérin. TST: tuberculin skin testing. High incidence: ≥20 cases per 100,000 population [12].