Among non-indigenous Canadians, TB rates generally increase with
age with the highest rates among those older than 65 (Figure 4).
Among immigrants, a bimodal distribution is seen with respect to age,
with most cases occurring in young adults and a second peak in incidence
among the elderly. Rivest et al.17 observed the same age distribution
trends. The peak among young adult immigrants is not necessarily
due to an increased susceptibility to TB in that group, but rather that
new immigrants are mostly in that age group43 and many immigrants
are diagnosed within two years of their arrival.6 The age distribution of
Inuit cases in Quebec was bimodal, similar to that observed in immigrant
cases. This is reported both by the SSSQ reports2,6 in the 2000s
and by Nguyen et al. in the 1990s.1 This may be explained by the fact
that population of Nunavik is considerably younger compared to that
of the Province of Quebec.