Mandatory Chest X-Ray as Part of Health Screening Tool in Adolescents: Is It Justified?

Chest radiograph (CXR) is a mandatory examination in all pre-admission medical check-up for university and boarding schools in Malaysia. Its main purpose is to detect major intra-thoracic abnormality or lung-related communicable disease, particularly pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Previous literatures show low prevalence of abnormal CXR in such practice. This study is done to investigate the prevalence of abnormal CXR in young population and the common abnormalities and its association in this population.