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Volume 15, Number 6—June 2009
Research

Tuberculosis Disparity between US-born Blacks and Whites, Houston, Texas, USA1

Jose A. Serpa, Larry D. Teeter, James M. Musser, and Edward A. GravissComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA (J.A. Serpa, E.A. Graviss); The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston (L.D. Teeter, J.M. Musser, E.A. Graviss)

Main Article

Table 1

Univariate analysis of selected epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of participants in the Houston Tuberculosis Initiative, Texas, 1995–2004*

Variable US-born black US-born white Hispanic Asian US-born black vs. white, OR (p value)
Demographics
Age, y, mean (median) 42.5 (43.0) 48.2 (47.0) 36.9 (36.0) 45.1 (43.0) 0.98 (<0.001)
Male sex 938 (71.2) 429 (78.7) 783 (64.2) 257 (55.5) 0.67 (0.001)
Not married 1,091 (82.8) 412 (75.6) 742 (60.8) 202 (43.6) 1.56 (<0.001)
Years of education, mean (median) 10.6 12.0 11.7 12.0 254 (20.8) 260 (56.3) 0.90 (<0.001)
Employed 453 (34.4) 214 (39.3) 501 (41.1) 209 (45.1) 0.81 (0.045)
Inner city residence† 538 (40.9) 198 (36.7) 384 (31.5) 40 (8.6) 1.19 (0.094)
Household size, mean (median)
5.2 (3.0)
4.5 (2.0)
4.7 (4.0)
5.1 (4.0)
1.00 (0.454)
Social history
Income <$10K/year 554 (51.7) 161 (36.0) 466 (46.0) 78 (18.1) 1.90 (<0.001)
Use of public transportation 664 (50.4) 177 (32.5) 363 (29.8) 40 (8.6) 2.11 (<0.001)
Current homelessness 129 (9.8) 77 (14.2) 32 (2.6) 4 (0.9) 0.66 (0.007)
Stay in a shelter‡ 132 (10.0) 65 (11.9) 17 (1.4) 5 (1.1) 0.82 (0.222)
Current smoking 745 (56.7) 388 (71.5) 279 (22.9) 80 (17.3) 0.52 (<0.001)
Alcohol abuse§ 601 (45.8) 311 (57.4) 251 (20.6) 50 (10.8) 0.63 (<0.001)
Drug use‡ 351 (26.7) 129 (23.7) 110 (9.0) 4 (0.9) 1.17 0.179)
Injection drug use‡ 25 (1.91) 25 (4.6) 9 (0.74) 1 (0.22) 0.40 (0.002)
Same-sex sexual behavior 129 (9.9) 91 (17.0) 69 (5.7) 2 (0.4) 0.54 (<0.001)
Commercial sex 168 (13.1) 67 (12.6) 52 (4.3) 2 (0.4) 1.05 (0.758)
Prison history
281 (21.4)
92 (16.9)
49 (4.0)
5 (1.1)
1.34 (0.026)
Medical history
Known TB exposure 502 (38.1) 222 (40.7) 375 (30.7) 86 (18.6) 0.88 (0.222)
Previous TB 112 (8.5) 55 (10.1) 56 (4.6) 41 (8.9) 0.83 (0.274)
Asthma 85 (6.4) 28 (5.1) 40 (3.3) 12 (2.6) 1.27 (0.282)
Diabetes 168 (12.7) 61 (11.2) 224 (18.4) 62 (13.4) 1.16 (0.353)
Renal disease 76 (5.8) 15 (2.8) 34 (2.79) 21 (4.54) 2.16 (0.007)
HIV seropositivity
364 (27.6)
109 (20.0)
111 (9.1)
8 (1.7)
1.52 (0.001)
Diagnosis and prognosis
Pulmonary TB 1,067 (81.0) 496 (91) 966 (79.2) 341 (73.7) 0.42 (<0.001)
Extrapulmonary TB 400 (30.3) 97 (17.8) 354 (29.0) 153 (33.0) 2.01 (<0.001)
Cavitation 458 (45.1) 213 (46.1) 405 (45.0) 111 (37.1) 0.96 (0.714)
Smear-positive pulmonary TB 577 (54.2) 257 (51.9) 473 (49.2) 132 (38.7) 1.10 (0.405)
M. tuberculosis culture positivity 1,102 (83.7) 486 (89.2) 979 (80.2) 402 (86.8) 0.62 (0.002)
TB clustering 822 (81.6) 349 (77.2) 466 (51.8) 100 (27.9) 1.31 (0.050)
Drug resistance 80 (7.3) 22 (4.5) 105 (10.7) 79 (19.7) 1.65 (0.043)
Multidrug resistance 3 (0.3) 1 (0.2) 15 (1.5) 9 (0.9) 1.32 (0.808)
Death¶ 143 (10.8) 62 (11.4) 80 (6.6) 28 (6.0) 0.95 (0.741)

*Stratification based on race does not include information about foreign-born blacks. Data presented as no. (%) participants except as indicated. OR, odds ratio; TB, tuberculosis; M. tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
†Defined according to specific zip codes.
‡Within 6 months before TB diagnosis.
§Drinks alcohol daily or nearly daily.
¶Within 180 days after TB diagnosis.

Main Article

1Preliminary analysis of data contained in this paper was presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, October 4–7, 2007, San Diego, California, USA (abstract no. 346).

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