Table 2. Epidemiological studies investigating carriage of N. meningitidis.
| Paper | Study area | Study period | Study design | Participant population | Number of participants | Carriage rate | Highest rate age group (%) | Dominant serogroup | Outbreak strain |
| Glover75 | England | Autumn 1917 | Survey | Military recruits | 3–38% | – | – | – | |
| Dudley et al.8 | England | 1933–1934 | Survey | Military recruits | 50 | – | Type II | – | |
| Jolley et al.56 | Czech Republic | Mar–Jun 1993 | Survey | 15–24 years | 1400 | 11.1 | – | – | – |
| Claus et al.65 | Germany | Nov 1999–Mar 2000 | Survey | 3–26 school children military camp | 8000 | 10.4 | 15–21 (18.1%) | B | – |
| 18–26 (32.6%) | |||||||||
| Glitza et al.57 | Germany | Feb–Sept 2000 | Survey | 15–18 years | 981 | 18.8 | – | B | – |
| Blackwell et al.59 | Greece | July 1990 | Survey | Military recruits | 993 | 25 | < 19 | – | – |
| Kremastinou et al.64 | Greece | Feb–Mar 1995 | Survey | 6–15-year old school children | 625 | 13.1 | – | A | – |
| Pavlopoulou et al.37 | Greece | Nov 2000–Feb 2001 | Survey | 2–19-year old school children | 554 | 4 | > 12 (9.2%) | C | – |
| Caugant et al.60 | Norway | Feb–Mar 1991 | Survey | All ages selected randomly | 943 | 9.6 | 20–24 (32.7%) | B | 8.8 |
| Bevanger et al.67 | Norway | 1 Oct–31 Dec 1995 | Survey | 0–19-year olds after 4 cluster cases in community | 523 | 9.4 | 18–19 (36.4%) | B | 0.8 |
| Cartwright et al.68 | UK | Nov 1986 | Survey | All ages | 6234 | 10.9 | 15–19 (24.5%) | B, C | 1.4 |
| Neal et al.58 | UK | Sept–Dec 1997 | Serial survey | 18–19-year-old first year university students | 2453 | 6.9–34.2 | B | 1–6.3 | |
| MacLennan et al.69 | UK | Autumn 1999 | Survey | 15–19 college students | 14 057 | 16.7 | 18–19 (22.6%) | – | – |
| Maiden et al.74 | UK | Oct–Dec 2000 | Survey | 15–17 students | 16 583 | 17.9 |