ArticleBMJ open2021
Cross-sectional study of prevalence and risk factors, and a cost-effectiveness evaluation of screening and preventive treatment strategies for latent tuberculosis among migrants in Singapore.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of Tuberculosis among migrants under national screening programs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Global health research and policy · 2025Pooled it
- Economic burden of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis on patients and households: a global systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Cost-effectiveness of latent tuberculosis infection testing and preventive treatment among TB contacts in China: a Markov model.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Cost-effectiveness of preventive treatment regimens for latent tuberculosis infection among key community-level populations.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Risks and consequences of TB and its prevention in cost-utility analyses among immigrants: a systematic review.IJTLD open · 2025Review
- Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of levofloxacin therapy for household contacts of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Vietnam.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2025Article
- Prediction of latent tuberculosis infection in Venezuelan immigrants: construction and validation of a surveillance model.Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical · 2025Article
- An integrative and comprehensive analysis of blood transcriptomes combined with machine learning models reveals key signatures for tuberculosis diagnosis and risk stratification.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Machine learning-guided clinical pharmacist interventions improve treatment outcomes in tuberculosis patients: a precision medicine approach.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2025Article
- Implementation of national whole-genome sequencing ofMicrobial genomics · 2023Article
- A cost-effectiveness evaluation of latent tuberculosis infection screening of a migrant population in Malaysia.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Economic Evaluation of Nemonoxacin, Moxifloxacin and Levofloxacin in the Treatment of Early Community-Acquired Pneumonia with Possible Pulmonary Tuberculosis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Prevalence of measles antibodies among migrant workers in Singapore: a serological study to identify susceptible population subgroups.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against diphtheria antitoxin among migrant workers in Singapore, 2016-2019.BMC public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWHO recommends that low burden countries consider systematic screening and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in migrants from high incidence countries. We aimed to determine LTBI prevalence and risk factors and evaluate cost-effectiveness of screening and treating LTBI in migrants to Singapore from a government payer perspective.
designCross-sectional study and cost-effectiveness analysis.
settingMigrants in Singapore.
participants3618 migrants who were between 20 and 50 years old, have not worked in Singapore previously and stayed in Singapore for less than a year were recruited. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs), threshold length of stay, incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs), cost per active TB case averted.
resultsOf 3584 migrants surveyed, 20.4% had positive interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) results, with the highest positivity in Filipinos (33.2%). Higher LTBI prevalence was significantly associated with age, marital status and past TB exposure. The cost-effectiveness model projected an ICER of S$57 116 per QALY and S$12 422 per active TB case averted for screening and treating LTBI with 3 months once weekly isoniazid and rifapentine combination regimen treatment compared with no screening over a 50-year time horizon. ICER was most sensitive to the cohort's length of stay in Singapore, yearly disease progression rates from LTBI to active TB, followed by the cost of IGRA testing.
conclusionsFor LTBI screening and treatment of migrants to be cost-effective, migrants from high burden countries would have to stay in Singapore for ~50 years. Risk-stratified approaches based on projected length of stay and country of origin and/or age group can be considered.
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