Abstract
Aims:
To estimate the age-specific prevalence of meningococcal carriage, quantify the variation in prevalence and explore reasons for heterogeneity.
Methods:
We conducted a systematic review of meningococcal carriage studies published between 1970-2007. Papers in any language reporting on ≥100 individuals were included; studies in settings not comparable to the UK were excluded. References of relevant papers were hand searched. We used mixed-effects logistic regression using splines to model carriage prevalence as a function of age, as this relationship is known to be non-linear.
Results:
Results presented here are based on 66 papers reporting European studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria. 12 papers included longitudinal studies of carriage, which were analysed separately. After controlling for country and study as random effects, background disease level (endemic/increased incidence), setting (civilian/hospital/military/mixed) and decade of the study were independently associated with carriage prevalence by age (likelihood-ratio test p
| Translated title of the contribution | Systematic review of meningococcal carriage by age |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Title of host publication | 10th Meeting of the EMGM European Meningococcal Disease Society, Manchester, UK |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2009 |