Demographic characteristics of sexually transmitted infections: retrospective 5-year outpatient clinic evaluation

INTRODUCTION: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a health problem that can affect both genders and they continue to be a social problem. Although it is more common in young adults, it can affect individuals of any age. The aim of our study was to evaluate the demographic characteristics of STIs.
METHODS: We investigated the cases of anogenital warts, herpes genitalis, genital molluscum contagiosum, syphilis, granuloma inguinale, lymphogranuloma venereum, pediculosis pubis and ulcus molle in 63,206 patients who applied to the outpatient clinic of the Dermatology Department of Istanbul University Cerrahpasa-Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine between 01.11.2007 and 01.12.2011.
RESULTS: Anogenital warts was the most common disease. No records of patients diagnosed with granuloma inguinale, lymphogranuloma venereum, pediculosis pubis and ulcus molle were found. Although we found pediatric and elderly patient records in our search, most of the patients were young adults. According to the evaluation of gender distribution, no statistically significant difference was found except for anogenital warts.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In this retrospective study, we evaluated the anogenital warts, herpes genitalis, genital molluscum contagiosum, syphilis, granuloma inguinale, lymphogranuloma venereum, pediculosis pubis and ulcus molle patients that applied to our dermatology outpatient clinic; the parameters were the disease frequency, age, age distribution, gender and gender distribution by age. The frequency of anogenital warts, herpes genitalis, genital molluscum contagiosum and syphilis were 0,46%, 0,069%, 0,037% and 0,026%, respectively. The average ages of these diseases were 34.58±12.64, 33.3±14.91, 20.29±12.24, and 43.82±14.16, respectively. While men were more affected by anogenital warts and syphilis, women were slightly more affected by genital molluscum contagiosum. The results were based upon the retrospective evaluation of the patients that applied to the outpatient clinic of Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine Dermatology Department. Further studies with longer follow up intervals and larger case series are needed to reach nation-based conclusions.