Thread by @seabbs

1. New (first) paper now available: Exploring the effects of BCG #vaccination in patients diagnosed with #tuberculosis: Observational study using the Enhanced Tuberculosis Surveillance system

Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.vacc…
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/366476

#phdchat #rstats

2. Highlights

Evidence of an association between BCG vaccination and reduced all-cause mortality in TB cases.

Weaker evidence of an association between BCG vaccination and reduced repeat TB episodes in TB cases.

Little evidence of an association with other TB outcomes.

3. Background: Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is one of the most widely-used vaccines worldwide. BCG primarily reduces the progression from infection to disease, however, there is evidence that BCG may provide additional benefits.

4. Methods: Using the Enhanced Tuberculosis surveillance system (from @phe_uk). We considered five outcomes: All-cause mortality, death due to TB, recurrent TB, pulmonary disease, and sputum smear status. We used logistic regression, with complete case analysis (+ multiple imp)

5. Results: Found evidence of an association between BCG vaccination and reduced all-cause mortality (aOR:0.76 (95%CI 0.64–0.89), P:0.001) and weak evidence of an association with reduced recurrent TB (aOR:0.90 (95%CI 0.81–1.00), P:0.056).

6. We found that BCG vaccination was associated with reduced all-cause mortality in people with TB although this benefit was less pronounced more than 10  years after vaccination. There was weak evidence of an association with reduced recurrent TB.

7. All analysis (+ paper writing) in #rstats, using @rstudio, #rmarkdown and the #tidyverse. Data available on request from @phe_uk, all interim results + code reproducible from the repo.

Code: github.com/seabbs/Explore…
Binder: mybinder.org/v2/gh/seabbs/E…

#openscience @mybinderteam