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REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1486946

Application of the age-period-cohort model in tuberculosis

Provisionally accepted
Dan Luo Dan Luo 1Fengying Wang Fengying Wang 2Song-Hua Chen Song-Hua Chen 3Yu Zhang Yu Zhang 3Wei Wang Wei Wang 3Qian Wu Qian Wu 3Ling Yuxiao Ling Yuxiao 4Yiqing Zhou Yiqing Zhou 1Yang Li Yang Li 5Kui Liu Kui Liu 3*Bin Chen Bin Chen 3*
  • 1 School of Public Health, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Jinhua Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Jinhua, China
  • 3 Department of Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, China
  • 4 Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
  • 5 Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Up to now, tuberculosis (TB) remains a global public health problem, posing a serious threat to human health. Traditional methods for analyzing time-varying trends, such as age and period, tend to ignore the poor impact of birth cohorts, which is an important factor in the development of TB. The age-period-cohort (APC) model, a statistical method widely used in recent decades in economics, sociology, and epidemiology, can quantitatively estimate the efficacy of different age, period, and birth cohort groups for TB by separating the effects of these three dimensions and controlling for confounding factors among the time variables. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the model, focus on the application of the existing APC model in the field of TB, and explain its advantages and disadvantages. This study will help to provides a theoretical basis and reference for using the APC model in TB analysis and prediction.

    Keywords: Tuberculosis, age-period-cohort models, Time trends, Model application, Identification problem

    Received: 27 Aug 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Luo, Wang, Chen, Zhang, Wang, Wu, Yuxiao, Zhou, Li, Liu and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Kui Liu, Department of Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, China
    Bin Chen, Department of Tuberculosis Control and Prevention, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.