Open AccessGonorrhea rates: what denominator is most appropriate?
Author(s) -
S O Aral,
Jamie Schaffer,
William D. Mosher,
Willard Cates
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.78.6.702
Subject(s) - gonorrhea , medicine , demography , population , environmental health , family medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , sociology
We used traditional crude population denominators and four different definitions of sexual activity to calculate progressively more refined gonorrhea rates among reproductive age women. Refining denominators to take sexual activity into account had the largest impact on morbidity rates for young women. Traditional denominators severely underestimate gonorrhea rates in teenagers, and understate the real magnitude of gonorrhea risk among sexually active teenagers.