Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the
world and notorious for its’ compact living environment. The
shortages of flat lands and high land values have prompted buildings to develop in the vertical direction. This study is a retrospective
ecological analysis of housing characteristics of TB positive specimens collected from the Centralized Mycobacterium Laboratory in
the Kowloon West Cluster (KWC). The catchment area of the KWC
served an estimated population of 1.9 million, representing 27
percent of the overall Hong Kong population in 2009 (Hospital
Authority, 2010). A total of 1787 TB positive cases were accumulated from 2007 to 2009 in which 1668 had valid addresses for
geocoding. The majority (83.8 percent) of TB cases came from KWC
districts (Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po, Kwai Tsing, Tsuen Wan and
Wong Tai Sin) and one non-KWC but contiguous district (Kowloon
City), as shown in Fig. 1.
Data about buildings (name, age, type, number of stories, etc.)
were purchased from the Census and Statistics Department. These
data were used to classify buildings by type and floor level for
further analysis. Ethical approval KW/EX/11-034(37-08) has been
obtained from the Kowloon West Cluster Research Ethics
Committee.