Anorectal swabs as a marker of male-to-male sexual exposure in STI surveillance systems

Epidemiology and Infection
F H AmptMargaret E Hellard

Abstract

Identification of priority populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) is important in surveillance systems to monitor trends of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). We explored using routinely collected non-behavioural data as a means to establish MSM status in surveillance by assessing anorectal swab as a marker of male-to-male sexual exposure. We used chlamydia testing data from a sexual health clinic, 2007-2012. Men reporting any male sexual partner(s) in the previous 12 months were considered MSM. The dataset was split into development and validation samples to develop a univariate predictive model and assess the model fit. The dataset included 30 358 individual men and 48 554 episodes of STI testing; 45% were among reported MSM and an anorectal swab was performed in 40% of testing episodes. Anorectal swabbing had good diagnostic performance as a marker for MSM status (sensitivity = 87%, specificity = 99%, positive predictive value = 98·6%, negative predictive value = 90·3%). The model showed good fit against the internal validation sample (area under the curve = 0·93). Anorectal swabs are a valid marker of MSM behaviour in surveillance data from sexual health clinics, and they are likely to be particularly usef...Continue Reading

References

Aug 6, 2004·Sexually Transmitted Infections·C M LowndesUNKNOWN European Surveillance of STI's Network
Jun 13, 2014·BMC Infectious Diseases·Wayne DimechUNKNOWN ACCESS collaboration
Aug 26, 2014·The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry·Anthony F Jorm
Apr 14, 2015·Sexually Transmitted Diseases·Joshua D TrebachKhalil G Ghanem

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Citations

Oct 30, 2019·Open Forum Infectious Diseases·Brendan L HarneyMark Stoové
Oct 27, 2021·Clinical Infectious Diseases : an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America·Brendan L HarneyUNKNOWN Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Sexually Transmissible Infections and Blood-borne

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