Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia
Summary: Objective: To assess the agreement between the tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT-G) as pre-employment screening tests for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among healthcare workers. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 1412 he...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2014-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Infection and Public Health |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876034114001129 |
| _version_ | 1811203526059098112 |
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| author | Mohamed El-Helaly Waseem Khan Aiman El-Saed Hanan H. Balkhy |
| author_facet | Mohamed El-Helaly Waseem Khan Aiman El-Saed Hanan H. Balkhy |
| author_sort | Mohamed El-Helaly |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary: Objective: To assess the agreement between the tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT-G) as pre-employment screening tests for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among healthcare workers. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 1412 healthcare workers who were screened for LTBI during the period from August 2009 to May 2011 at a tertiary-care hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The studied population was screened for LTBI using both TST and QFT-G simultaneously. The agreement between both tests was quantified using the Kappa coefficient (κ). Results: Comparing the results of QFT-G with TST, the tests had a significant overall agreement of 73.7% (1040/1412; κ = 0.33; p < 0.01). Negative concordance comprised 60.1% of the results, and positive concordance comprised 13.5%. However, positive TST but negative QFT comprised 16.3% of the results, and negative TST but positive QFT-G comprised 10.1%. Concordance was significantly associated with young age, female gender, Saudi-born nationals, and early career but not job type (clinical versus non-clinical) nor status of Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG) vaccination. Conclusions: This study demonstrated 73.7% overall agreement between TST and QFT-G results among healthcare workers during pre-employment screening for LTBI. The results need to be confirmed in future studies before recommending QFT-G as a pre-employment screening test for LTBI. Keywords: Latent tuberculosis infection, Healthcare workers, Tuberculin skin test, QuantiFERON-TB Gold test |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T02:56:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-06d707ee4af347388056e6964c58bf06 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1876-0341 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T02:56:51Z |
| publishDate | 2014-11-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Infection and Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-06d707ee4af347388056e6964c58bf062022-12-22T03:50:46ZengElsevierJournal of Infection and Public Health1876-03412014-11-0176481488Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi ArabiaMohamed El-Helaly0Waseem Khan1Aiman El-Saed2Hanan H. Balkhy3Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt; Corresponding author at: Environmental Health and Occupational Health and Safety, Infection Prevention and Control Department, KAMC, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh 2134, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Tel.: +966 550340192.Infection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaInfection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Community Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, EgyptInfection Prevention and Control Department, King Abdulaziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, National Guard Health Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, National Guard Health Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaSummary: Objective: To assess the agreement between the tuberculin skin test (TST) and the QuantiFERON-TB Gold test (QFT-G) as pre-employment screening tests for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) among healthcare workers. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 1412 healthcare workers who were screened for LTBI during the period from August 2009 to May 2011 at a tertiary-care hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The studied population was screened for LTBI using both TST and QFT-G simultaneously. The agreement between both tests was quantified using the Kappa coefficient (κ). Results: Comparing the results of QFT-G with TST, the tests had a significant overall agreement of 73.7% (1040/1412; κ = 0.33; p < 0.01). Negative concordance comprised 60.1% of the results, and positive concordance comprised 13.5%. However, positive TST but negative QFT comprised 16.3% of the results, and negative TST but positive QFT-G comprised 10.1%. Concordance was significantly associated with young age, female gender, Saudi-born nationals, and early career but not job type (clinical versus non-clinical) nor status of Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG) vaccination. Conclusions: This study demonstrated 73.7% overall agreement between TST and QFT-G results among healthcare workers during pre-employment screening for LTBI. The results need to be confirmed in future studies before recommending QFT-G as a pre-employment screening test for LTBI. Keywords: Latent tuberculosis infection, Healthcare workers, Tuberculin skin test, QuantiFERON-TB Gold testhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876034114001129 |
| spellingShingle | Mohamed El-Helaly Waseem Khan Aiman El-Saed Hanan H. Balkhy Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia Journal of Infection and Public Health |
| title | Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia |
| title_full | Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia |
| title_fullStr | Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia |
| title_short | Pre-employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and QuantiFERON-TB Gold test at a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia |
| title_sort | pre employment screening of latent tuberculosis infection among healthcare workers using tuberculin skin test and quantiferon tb gold test at a tertiary care hospital in saudi arabia |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876034114001129 |
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