The value of seroprevalence data as surveillance tool for Lyme borreliosis in the general population: the experience of Belgium

Table 1 Adjusted prevalence of Borrelia IgG seropositivity and 95% confidence intervals by sex, age and region

Characteristic	Number positive^a samples/total number	Adjusted prevalence %	95% CI	P value
Sex
Male	24/1608	1.34	0.81–2.20
Female	13/1607	0.78	0.32–1.90	0.29
Age (in years)
< 15	12/1271	1.16	0.62–2.16
15–59	18/1590	0.91	0.50–1.63	0.94
≥ 60	7/354	1.38	0.48–3.89	0.58
Region
Brussels	4/378	1.21	0.36–4.02
Flanders	27/2052	1.12	0.68–1.82	0.91
Wallonia	6/785	0.93	0.31–2.74	0.75
Province
West Flanders	2/522	0.44	0.00–2.33
East Flanders	2/431	1.23	0.31–4.77	0.34
Flemish Brabant	8/532	1.06	0.39–2.84	0.37
Antwerp	7/551	0.79	0.34–1.86	0.54
Limburg	12/394	2.65	1.25–5.53	0.03^b
Hainaut	0/298	0	0.00–0.01	0.37
Walloon Brabant	2/69	1.12	0.27–4.46	0.39
Liège	3/175	2.82	0.78–9.72	0.05
Namur	0/62	0	0.00–0.05	0.64
Luxembourg	1/181	0.53	0.00–3.67	0.89

^aBoth the 30 positive and 7 equivocal IB results were considered as positive samples. ^bStatistically significant
Differences in distribution of RLU values by age, gender and province were not statistically significant neither (results not shown)

ISSN: 1471-2458