Seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against pertussis toxin in the Chinese population: A systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease; however, data on pertussis antibody levels in a nationwide population are still limited in China. We aimed to pool the seropositivity rates of IgG antibodies against pertussis toxin (PT-IgG) across the country. We systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database for studies published between January 1, 2010, and June 30, 2023. Studies reporting the seroprevalence of PT-IgG among a healthy Chinese population were included. Pooled estimates were obtained using random-effects meta-analyzes. The meta-analysis included 39 studies (47,778 participants) reporting anti-PT IgG seropositivity rates. The pooled rate for all ages was 7.06% (95% CI, 5.50%-9.07%). Subgroup analyzes showed rates ranging from 6.36% to 12.50% across different age groups. This meta-analysis indicated a low anti-PT IgG seropositivity rate in the Chinese population, particularly among school-aged children and young adults. This finding underscores the urgent need to refine immunization strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Pertussis
• antibodies
• pertussis toxin
• China
• meta-analysis

Author’s contributions

Hanqing He, Yao Zhu, and Wanting Zhang conceptualized the study. Yao Zhu, Wanting Zhang, and Jie Hu contributed to literature review and data extraction. Yao Zhu and Shuying Luo evaluated the quality of the included studies. Yang Zhou, Xuewen Tang, and Xuan Deng performed statistical analyzes. Yao Zhu, Wanting Zhang and Rui Yan wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Hanqing He and Shuying Luo accessed and verified the data. All authors interpreted the results, commented on the drafts of the manuscript, and approved the final version. All authors had full access to all data in the study and were ultimately responsible for the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data required to evaluate the conclusions of this study are presented in the paper, Supplementary Materials, or both.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website at https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2024.2341454

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Medical and Health Science and Technology Program [grant number: 2024KY885].