Clinical management of tuberculosis in Russia involves lengthy hospitalizations, in contrast to the recommended strategy advocated by the World Health Organization.
We used Fourier transform, spectral analysis and Student's t-test to analyse periodic and seasonal variations in admission and discharge rates for tuberculosis hospitalizations in 1999-2002, using routinely captured data from the Samara Region, Russia.
Hospital admissions in colder months were significantly higher than in warmer months. The mean monthly adjusted number of admissions in colder and warmer months for all adults was 413 and 372 (P