College Freshmen In Dorms At Increased Risk.(Brief Article)

2001 AUG 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

Compared with other college students, freshmen living in dormitories have an increased risk of meningococcal disease, even though U.S. college students as a group are at no greater overall risk for the disease than nonstudents in similar age groups, study results show.

Michael G. Bruce, MD, MPH, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and colleagues conducted a surveillance study from September 1, 1998, to August 31, 1999, to determine rates of meningococcal disease among U.S. college students and to identify risk factors for meningococcal disease in this population.

Elevated rates of meningococcal disease were noted among 18- to 22-year-olds in the mid-1990s, the researchers note. However, national data on rates of meningococcal disease in U.S. college students were not collected until 1998, when nationwide surveillance for the disease among college students began. In the current study, the authors determined the incidence of (the number of new cases occurring during a given period within a defined population) and risk factors for meningococcal disease in U.S. college students.

Using data provided by 50 state health departments and 231 college health centers, Bruce and colleagues identified 96 cases of meningococcal disease. Of these 96 cases, 30 (31%) occurred among freshmen in dormitories.

"The incidence rate for undergraduates was 0.7 per 100,000 persons vs. 1.4 per 100,000 for the general population of 18- to 23-year-old nonstudents," the authors write in the August 8, 2001, Journal of the American Medical Association. "Freshmen living in dormitories had the highest incidence rate at 5.1 per 100,000."

In an analysis of case-control study data, the risk of meningococcal disease was about three times greater for freshmen living in dormitories than for other college students.