Predicting the incidence of rifampicin resistant tuberculosis in Yunnan, China: a seasonal time series analysis based on routine surveillance data

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BackgroundRifampicin resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) poses a growing threat to individuals and communities. This study utilized a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model to quantitatively predict the monthly incidence of RR-TB in Yunnan Province which could guide government health administration departments and the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) in preventing and controlling the RR-TB epidemic.MethodsThe study utilized routine surveillance reporting data from the infectious Disease Network Surveillance and Reporting System. Monthly incidence rates of RR-TB were collected from January 2019 to December 2022. A time series SARIMA model was used to predict the number of monthly RR-TB cases in Yunnan Province in 2023, and the model was validated using time series plots, seasonal and non-seasonal differencing, autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation analysis, and white noise tests.ResultsFrom 2019 to 2022, the incidence of RR-TB decreases as the incidence of all TB decreases (P < 0.05). There was no significant change in the proportion of RR-TB among all TB cases, which remained within 2.5% (P>0.05). The time series decomposition shows that it presented obvious seasonality, periodicity and randomness after being decomposed. Time series analysis was performed on the original series after 1 non-seasonal difference and 1 seasonal difference, the ADF test showed P < 0.05. According to ACF and PACF, the SARIMA (1, 1, 1) (1, 1, 0)12 model was chosen and statistically significant model parameter estimates (P < 0.05). The predicted seasonal trend of RR-TB incidence in 2019 to 2023 was similar to the actual data. The percentage accuracy in the prediction excesses 80% in 2019 to 2022 and is all within 95% CI. However there was a certain gap between the actual incidence and the predicted value in 2023, and the acutual incidence had increased by 12.4% compared to 2022. The percentage of accuracy in the prediction was only 70% in 2023.ConclusionsWe found the incidence of RR-TB was based on that of all TB in Yunnan. The SARIMA model successfully predicted the seasonal incidence trend of RR-TB in Yunnan Province in 2019 to 2023, but the prediction precision could be influenced by factors such as new infectious disease outbreaks or pandemics, social issues, environmental challenges or other unknown risks. Hence CDCs should pay special attention to the post epidemic effects of new infectious disease outbreaks or pandemics, carry out monitoring and early warning, and better optimize disease prediction models.