Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Risk Factors Among Young People in a Public Health Center in Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections (STI) significantly affect the health of sexually active people, especially young people, and can cause low sexual dysfunction, low self-esteem, infertility, increased transmission of HIV, and death. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of a cross-section of users of a public health services center and verified the prevalence of STI and its associated predictors for male and female individuals 13-24 years of age in an interior county of southern Brazil. Results: The records of 1703 adolescents and young adults, stratified by age (13-18 and 19-24 years, respectively) and sex, admitted between April 1, 2012, and March 31, 2017, were reviewed in this retrospective study. Epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory data of medical records were analyzed using the chi-square test and odds ratio, with confidence interval of 95% by the Stata (R) 9.0 program. During the study period, a total of 3448 patients were attended to; of these, 1703 (49.39%) were 13-24 years of age, with 86.56% of those 19-24 years having at least 1 STI. The prevalence of STI among men and women, respectively, was 35.40% and 47.67% for condylomata, 8.46% and 7.00% for herpes, 26.35% and 18.80% for syphilis, and 20.06% and 6.27% for urethral discharge syndrome. The risk for STI acquisition was the highest in young adults (odds ratio [OR] 1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.17-2.06, P=.002), female individuals (OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.14-2.00, P=.004), those with multiple sexual partners (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.22-2.16, P<.001), and those not using or irregularly using prophylactics (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.22-2.16, P <.001). Conclusions: The findings revealed a significant prevalence of STI among young people in public health service. The predictors associated with STI in these patients were being female, having multiple partners in the last year, and not using or irregularly using prophylactics. These predictors confirm the necessity to implement more aggressive strategies to prevent the occurrence of STI in specific populations with higher disease risk, thereby minimizing costs and damage caused by the infections.