Table 1– Summary of study design and epidemiological features of included studies.
| Author | Study design | Study site | Study period | Genotyping methods | Cluster definition | Sampling fraction % | Total genotyped N | Foreign-born % | |
| Primary | Secondary | ||||||||
| Allix-Béguec [20] | Prospective hospital-based | Brussels-Capital, Belgium | 1/1/2003 to 31/12/2004 | MIRU-VNTR-Spoligo. | RFLP | Identical spoligotypes and MIRU-VNTR type | 87.9 | 530 | 78.9 |
| Barniol [21] | Prospective population-based | Baden-Württemberg, Germany | 1/1/2003 to 31/12/2005 | RFLP | Spoligo. | Identical RFLP patterns | 41.1 | 308 | 56.2 |
| Bezanahary [22] | Retrospective hospital-based | Limousin region, France | 1/1/1998 to 31/12/2006 | Spoligo. | MIRU 15 | Identical spoligotypes and MIRU15 types | 63.7 | 165 | 32.7 |
| Borrell [23] | Population-based | Barcelona, Spain | 1/1/2003 to 31/12/2004 | RFLP | MIRU 12 | 1) Identical RFLP patterns with ≥6 fragments 2) <6 identical IS6110 bands and an identical MIRU 12 type | 67.4 | 463 | 32.0 |
| Brudey [24] | Population-based | Western Sweden | 1/6/1999 to 31/12/2002 | Spoligo. | VNTR 5 | Identical spoligotype and VNTR types | 50.9 | 112 | NA |
| Dahle [25] | Population-based | Norway | 1/1/1994 to 31/12/2001 | RFLP | Spoligo. | Identical RFLP patterns for strains with more than 4 copies of IS6110 | 100.0 | 538 | 70.8 |
| Diel [26] | Prospective population-based | Hamburg, Germany | 1/1/1997 to 30/6/2002 | RFLP | Identical RFLP patterns, isolates <5 bands were excluded | 93.3 | 796 | 42.0 | |
| Franzetti [27] | Prospective hospital-based | Milan and Brescia, Italy | 1/7/1993 to 30/6/2000 | RFLP | Spoligo. | Identical RFLP patterns containing ≥7 fragments or containing ≤6 band with identical spoligotypes | 90.1 | 1999 | 25.0 |
| Gil [28] | Prospective population-based | Castellon, Spain | 1/1/2004 to 31/12/2007 | RFLP | Identical RFLP patterns | 89.1 | 286 | 42.3 | |
| Gutierrez [29] | Prospective population-based | Paris, Ile de France, France | 1/1/1995 to 31/12/1995 | RFLP | DR | 1) Identical RFLP patterns with ≥6 fragments 2) RFLP patterns with ≥6 that differed by only one copy and indistinguishable DR-RFLP patterns, or 3) Identical RFLP patterns with two to five bands and identical DR-RFLP patterns | 83.2 | 272 | 59.2 |
| Inigo [30] | Prospective hospital-based | Madrid, Spain | 1/1/2002 to 31/12/2007 | RFLP | Spoligo. | 1) Identical RFLP patterns containing ≥6 fragments 2) <6 identical RFLP fragments and an identical spoligotypes | 72.2 | 1269 | 41.1 |
| Kamper-Jørgensen [31] | Prospective population-based | Denmark | 1/1/1992 to 31/12/2004 | RFLP | Spoligo. | 1) Identical RFLP pattern containing ≥5 bands in the RFLP pattern 2) <5 identical RFLP fragments and identical spoligotypes | 99.0 | 4631 | 61.6 |
| Kumar [32] | Prospective hospital-based | Northwest London, UK | 1/1/1993 to 31/12/1993 | RFLP | DR | RFLP differing by a single band If only one RFLP fragment: identical DR patterns | NA | 118 | 86.4 |
| López-Calleja [33] | Retrospective population-based | Zaragoza, Spain | 1/6/2001 to 31/5/2004 | RFLP | Spoligo. | 1) Identical RFLP pattern containing ≥5 fragments 2) <5 IS6110 bands that matched identically and identical spoligotyping pattern | 94.2 | 452 | 17.7 |
| Lucerna [34] | Prospective population-based | Almeria, Spain | 1/1/2003 to 31/12/2007 | RFLP | Spoligo. | 1) Identical RFLP pattern containing ≥6 bands 2) ≤6 identical RFLP fragments and identical spoligotypes | 76.9 | 427 | 56.2 |
MIRU: mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units; VNTR: variable-number tandem repeats; Spoligo.: spoligotyping; RFLP: IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism; NA: not available; DR: direct repeat restriction fragment length polymorphism.