Tomori Damilola Victoria, Horn Johannes, Rübsamen Nicole, Kleine Bardenhorst Sven, Kröger Christoph, Jaeger Veronika K, Karch André, Mikolajczyk Rafael
Institute of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Institute for Medical Epidemiology, Biometrics and Informatics, Interdisciplinary Center for Health Sciences, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany.
Front Epidemiol. 2022 May 4;2:858789. doi: 10.3389/fepid.2022.858789. eCollection 2022.
Sexual contact patterns determine the spread of sexually transmitted infections and are a central input parameter for mathematical models in this field. We evaluated the importance of country-specific sexual contact pattern parametrization for high-income countries with similar cultural backgrounds by comparing data from two independent studies (HaBIDS and SBG) in Germany, a country without systematic sexual contact pattern data, with data from the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) in the UK, and the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) in the US, the two longest running sexual contact studies in high-income countries. We investigated differences in the distribution of the reported number of opposite-sex partners, same-sex partners and both-sex partners using weighted negative binomial regression adjusted for age and sex (as well as stratified by age). In our analyses, UK and US participants reported a substantially higher number of lifetime opposite-sex sexual partners compared to both German studies. The difference in lifetime partners was caused by a higher proportion of individuals with many partners in the young age group (<24 years) in the UK and the US. Partner acquisition in older age groups was similar. The number of same-sex partners was similar across countries, while there was heterogeneity in the reported experience with partners from both sexes, consistent with the differences observed for opposite-sex sexual partners. These patterns can lead to substantially different dynamics of sexually transmitted infections across ages, and have strong impact on the results of modeling studies.
性接触模式决定了性传播感染的传播情况，并且是该领域数学模型的核心输入参数。我们通过比较德国（一个没有系统性性接触模式数据的国家）两项独立研究（HaBIDS和SBG）的数据，与英国的全国性态度与生活方式调查（Natsal）以及美国的全国家庭成长调查（NSFG）（高收入国家开展时间最长的两项性接触研究）的数据，评估了针对具有相似文化背景的高收入国家进行特定国家性接触模式参数化的重要性。我们使用针对年龄和性别进行调整（以及按年龄分层）的加权负二项回归，研究了报告的异性伴侣、同性伴侣和双性伴侣数量分布的差异。在我们的分析中，与德国的两项研究相比，英国和美国的参与者报告的终生异性性伴侣数量要多得多。终生伴侣数量的差异是由英国和美国年轻年龄组（<24岁）中拥有多个伴侣的个体比例较高所致。老年组的伴侣获取情况相似。各国同性伴侣的数量相似，而关于双性伴侣的报告经历存在异质性，这与异性性伴侣观察到的差异一致。这些模式可能导致不同年龄段性传播感染的动态情况有很大差异，并对建模研究的结果产生重大影响。
