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Darius A. Rastegar, MD

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 130 words of the full text and any section headings.

Oeltmann and colleagues^1(p189) report that "substance abuse is the most commonly reported behavioral risk factor among patients with TB [tuberculosis] in the United States." The authors say that they controlled for other risk factors but did not look at one important behavioral risk factor: smoking. Previous studies have shown an association between smoking and tuberculosis in other countries.^2-3 It is well known that persons with substance use disorders have higher smoking rates than the general population.⁴ I wonder whether the authors had access to data on smoking rates; if so, it would be helpful to see if this would influence their findings.

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Correspondence: Dr Rastegar, Division of Chemical Dependence, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, 5200 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224 (drasteg1@jhmi.edu).

1. Oeltmann JE, Kammerer JS, Pevzner ES, Moonan PK. Tuberculosis and substance abuse in the United States, 1997-2006. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(2):189-197. FREE FULL TEXT 2. Leung CC, Li T, Lam TH; et al. Smoking and tuberculosis among the elderly in Hong Kong. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2004;170(9):1027-1033. FREE FULL TEXT 3. Gajalakshmi V, Peto R, Kanaka S, Jha P. Smoking and mortality from tuberculosis and other diseases in India: retrospective study of 43000 adult male deaths and 35000 controls. Lancet. 2003;362(9383):507-515. FULL TEXT | WEB OF SCIENCE | PUBMED 4. Grant BF, Hasin DS, Chou SP, Stinson FS, Dawson DA. Nicotine dependence and psychiatric disorders in the United States: results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2004;61(11):1107-1115. FREE FULL TEXT

Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(13):1245.

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RELATED ARTICLE

Tuberculosis and Substance Abuse in the United States, 1997-2006
John E. Oeltmann, J. Steve Kammerer, Eric S. Pevzner, and Patrick K. Moonan
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(2):189-197.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED LETTER

Tuberculosis and Substance Abuse—Reply
John E. Oeltmann, J. Steve Kammerer, Eric S. Pevzner, and Patrick K. Moonan
Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(13):1245-1246.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT