Exploring chlamydia positivity among females on college campuses, 2008–2010

ABSTRACT

Objective: Describe chlamydia positivity among young women tested at college health centers by student characteristics: age, race/ethnicity, and institution type. Participants: During 2008–2010, colleges participating in a national infertility prevention program provided chlamydia testing data from females aged 18–24. Methods: Chlamydia positivity (number of positive tests divided by the number tested) among females stratified by college type (4-year versus 2-year and minority serving institutes [MSIs]) was determined. Results: Chlamydia testing data were provided by 148 colleges: 37 (26%) MSIs and 21 (15%) 2-year colleges. Of the 118,946 chlamydia tests, 6.5% were positive. Chlamydia positivity in females at 4-year colleges was 6.6% versus 5.3% at 2-year colleges (p = .0001). Positivity at MSIs was almost double of that at non-MSIs, 10.0% versus 5.4% (p = .0001). Conclusions: Chlamydia positivity may be higher among college females than previously thought. Higher positivity at MSIs suggests that targeted sexually transmitted infection prevention efforts may be useful for high-risk college populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Chlamydia
• college
• minority serving institute
• STD
• student

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank LaZetta Grier for her assistance with management of the national infertility prevention program data. We thank the facilities and regional coordinating centers that participated in the national infertility prevention program for collection of data and submission to CDC.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and data were collected as part of routine public health surveillance and were thus exempt from CDC Institutional Review Board review.

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.

Disclaimer

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.