Objective: To investigate and highlight the trends and socio-demographic determinants of tuberculosis disease (TB)
in West Azerbaijan Province (WAP) and Iran, during 2004-2009.
Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we studied the regional and national data of TB new cases
which have been provided by deputy for health affairs and world health organization, respectively. The association
between pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB forms and socio-economic status was tested by means of chi squared.
The national census data of 2006 were used to determine the incidence trends. Cochran-Armitage test was used to
analyze the smear positive TB incidence trends.
Results: Age-specific incidence trends of smear positive TB for both of males and females are increased in
concordance aging in provincial and national levels (P=0.0001). Regard to age-specific incidence rate ratio by
gender, the younger and older females were more vulnerable to TB significantly (P<0.05). Considering sociodemographic
status and TB forms, there were statistically significant association between age, gender, low education
attainment, occupation and incidence of pulmonary TB (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Since Iran and WAP have experienced the declined trends of population grow rate and enhanced life
expectancy in last two decades, it is predictable that there will be an increase in burden of TB among older age
groups in the future. On the other hand, TB incident gap was increased among birth cohorts of older age groups and
it is becoming a serious health problem in Iran.