Meta-analysis of the association of MDR-TB and immigration status in TB cases.

<p>(a) Forrest plot: triangles are proportional to the study size, (value of population size for each study is also given). Horizontal lines represent 95% confidence intervals. Year, year of data collection. Id, article reference number. I², statistic which measures the degree of heterogeneity. 95%CI, 95% confidence intervals. (b) Scatter plot of the ORs for the association of MDR-TB and FBP (triangle; article id number) from studies included in the meta-analysis per year of data collection. Bar plot of the variation per year of the proportion of immigrants from medium-high (white bar) and high MDR-TB endemic countries (shaded bar) (for countries classification according to their level of MDR-TB endemicity see: Global Tuberculosis Report 2012, WHO 2012<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0094728#pone.0094728-World1" target="_blank">[1]</a>). The years-related progressive increment of foreign-born persons from medium to high MDR-TB endemic countries in Italy (sources: ISTAT Tab5 <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0094728#pone.0094728-ISTAT1" target="_blank">[62]</a>) seems to parallel the increase of ORs of the association of MDR-TB and immigration status in TB cases during the lasts 2 decades.