Tuberc Respir Dis.  2013 Mar;74(3):104-110.

Increased Tuberculosis Burden Due to Demographic Transition in Korea from 2001 to 2010

• Park YK
• Park YS
• Na KI
• Cho EH
• Shin SS
• Kim HJ

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Notified tuberculosis (TB) cases in Korea have not decreased over the last decade (2001-2010).
METHODS
To clarify the reasons, we analyzed an annual report on notified tuberculosis patients and age-specific population drift in Korea.
RESULTS
Compared to the age-specific notified TB cases between 2001 and 2010, distinctive features in notified TB cases and new cases increased markedly in people aged 45-54 years and in patients over 65 years old, whereas those between 15-34 years in 2010 decreased drastically. In particular, notified TB individuals over 65 years old occupied 29.6% of the cases in 2010, which was 1.5 times higher than that in 2001. The main reason not to decrease in notified TB patients for the last decade (2001-2010) was due to the increasing elderly population as well as the aging of baby boomers, which have a higher risk of TB development.
CONCLUSION
Korea needs to pay attention to the older population in order to successfully decrease the burden of TB in the future.

Keyword

Tuberculosis; Population Dynamics; Aging

MeSH Terms

Aged
Aging
Humans
Korea
Population Dynamics
Population Growth
Tuberculosis

Figure

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  Figure 1 Comparison of age-specific notified tuberculosis (TB) cases between 2001 and 2010. Distinctive features of TB cases markedly increased in 45-54 year olds and those over 65 year olds in 2010.

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  Figure 2 Comparison of notified age-specific tuberculosis (TB) rates per 100,000 people between 2001 and 2010. The TB rates in 2010 were reduced in all age groups compared to 2001.

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  Figure 3 Trend of age-specific notified new tuberculosis (TB) cases for the last decade (2001-2010). New TB cases increased in those over 45 year olds, particularly in individuals aged 65 or over compared to 2001 TB patients in 2010.

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  Figure 4 Demographic change of age specific population from 1980 to 2010. The old age group has increased steadily while the younger age group has decreased.

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  Figure 5 Prospective age-specific populations in the future (data from Statistics Korea)19. Baby boomers would be the main cause for the increasing old age group.

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