Seroprevalence of <i>Mycoplasma pneumoniae</i> in Healthy Adolescents in Taiwan

Abstract

This study was designed to understand the seroprevalence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in healthy Taiwanese adolescents. The study included 2,233 college freshmen (female:male = 1.29:1; mean age, 19.7 years). The percentages of subjects residing in northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan were 66.91, 15.89,9.0, and 8.2%, respectively. All enrolled subjects underwent a serologic agglutination test to detect serum concentrations of antibodies to M. pneumoniae. The test results showed that 19.84% of the subjects were infected and, of those, 6.0% were estimated to have subsequently acquired a current or acute infection during this study period. Moreover, the percentage of seropositive females (22.77%) was significantly higher than that of seropositive males (16.07%) (odds ratio, 1.54; 95% confidence interval, 1.241 - 1.911). Subjects residing in eastern counties were more likely to contract M. pneumoniae than those residing in other areas of Taiwan.