Study identifies pelvic inflammatory disease risk groups

By Christian Duffin

Young women are at increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease if they have had chlamydia, are aged less than 20, are black, or have had multiple sexual partners, according to a UK-based study.

The analysis involved 2,500 women in London with an average of20.8. The patients did not have an initial diagnosis of PID, but were tracked over 12 months and subsequently given a questionnaire concerning their lifestyles and health and a medical records search. After 12 months 32 women were diagnosed with the disease.

Compared with women who were not diagnosed with PID, the relative risks for PID over the 12 months were calculated at 3.8 for those aged under 20, 2.1 for black ethnicity, 2.6 for baseline symptoms of vaginal discharge, 3.7 for pelvic pain, and 4.3 for those who had had two or more sexual partners.

Study leader Dr Pippa Oakeshott, a reader in general practice from St George's University of London and a GP in Clapham, presented the study at the Society for Academic Primary Care conference in Cambridge earlier this month.

She concluded: ‘This is the first UK community-based prospective study of PID. Safer-sex messages might be targeted at these high-risk groups.'

SAPC London and south-east region annual scientific meeting, abstract 13