Table 1.
Sociodemographic characteristics of uncircumcised men who attended the Bwaila STI clinic between February and August 2021
| Characteristic | All men, n=2230 |
Standard of care, n=514 |
Intensified health education, n=731 |
Intensified heath education and SMS/telephonic tracing, n=508 |
Intensified health education, SMS/telephonic tracing and transport reimbursement, n=477 |
| Age (years) Mean (±SD) |
30 (9) | 31 (9) | 30 (8) | 31 (8) | 30 (7) |
| Age categories (years), n (%) | |||||
| ≤18 years | 72 (3.2) | 14 (2.7) | 17 (2.3) | 16 (3.2) | 25 (5.3) |
| 19–29 years | 1107 (49.8) | 264 (51.4) | 362 (49.7) | 233 (46.0) | 248 (52.3) |
| 30–39 years | 666 (30.0) | 155 (30.2) | 225 (30.9) | 161 (31.8) | 125 (26.4) |
| ≥40 years | 377 (17.0) | 81 (15.7) | 124 (17.0) | 96 (19.0) | 76 (16.0) |
| Marital status, n (%) | |||||
| Single | 874 (39.4) | 207 (40.4) | 280 (38.4) | 189 (37.3) | 198 (41.8) |
| Married/cohabiting | 1297 (58.4) | 293 (57.1) | 435 (59.8) | 305 (60.3) | 264 (55.7) |
| Divorced | 44 (2.0) | 12 (2.3) | 10 (1.4) | 12 (2.4) | 10 (2.1) |
| Widowed | 6 (0.2) | 1 (0.2) | 3 (0.4) | 0 (0) | 2 (0.4) |
| Education, n (%) | |||||
| None | 50 (2.3) | 13 (2.5) | 14 (2.0) | 11 (2.2) | 12 (2.5) |
| Primary | 864 (38.9) | 193 (37.6) | 287 (39.4) | 207 (40.9) | 177 (37.3) |
| Secondary | 1165 (52.4) | 272 (53.1) | 384 (52.7) | 254 (50.2) | 255 (53.8) |
| >Secondary | 142 (6.4) | 35 (6.8) | 43 (5.9) | 34 (6.7) | 30 (6.4) |
| Electricity, n (%) | |||||
| Yes | 670 (30.2) | 158 (30.7) | 215 (29.6) | 145 (28.8) | 152 (32.2) |
| No | 1546 (69.8) | 356 (69.3) | 511 (70.4) | 359 (71.2) | 320 (67.8) |
| Running water, n (%) | |||||
| Yes | 716 (32.3) | 178 (34.8) | 215 (29.6) | 158 (31.3) | 165 (34.9) |
| No | 1501 (67.7) | 334 (65.2) | 512 (70.4) | 347 (68.7) | 308 (65.1) |
| HIV status, n (%) | |||||
| Positive | 140 (6.4) | 28 (5.5) | 45 (6.3) | 38 (7.6) | 29 (6.1) |
| Negative | 1966 (89.5) | 446 (88.9) | 652 (90.6) | 445 (88.8) | 423 (89.5) |
| Discordant | 3 (0.1) | 0 (0) | 2 (0.3) | 1 (0.2) | 0 (0) |
| Unknown | 87 (4.0) | 28 (5.6) | 21 (2.8) | 17 (3.4) | 21 (4.4) |
| Condom use during last sex, n (%)* | |||||
| Yes | 36 (3.9) | 8 (3.1) | 9 (2.9) | 3 (2.0) | 16 (8.2) |
| No | 884 (96.1) | 251 (96.9) | 306 (97.1) | 149 (98.0) | 178 (91.8) |
| Number of sexual partners in last 4 weeks, n (%)* | |||||
| 0 | 23 (2.5) | 8 (3.1) | 8 (2.6) | 3 (2.7) | 4 (2.1) |
| 1 | 876 (96.0) | 247 (95.7) | 300 (96.5) | 110 (97.3) | 183 (94.8) |
| ≥2 | 14 (1.5) | 3 (1.2) | 3 (0.9) | 0 (0.0) | 5 (3.1) |
| Received money, good or favours for sex in the last 4 weeks, n (%)* | |||||
| Yes | 11 (1.2) | 5 (1.9) | 4 (1.3) | 1 (0.7) | 1 (0.5) |
| No | 902 (98.8) | 253 (98.1) | 307 (98.7) | 150 (99.3) | 192 (99.5) |
| Gave someone money, goods or favours for sex in the last 4 weeks, n (%)* | |||||
| Yes | 110 (12.1) | 17 (6.6) | 34 (10.9) | 32 (21.2) | 27 (14.1) |
| No | 802 (87.9) | 241 (93.4) | 277 (89.1) | 119 (78.8) | 165 (85.9) |
| STI diagnosis, n (%)† | |||||
| Balanitis | 182 (9.3) | 46 (10.6) | 49 (7.6) | 41 (9.4) | 46 (10.6) |
| Genital ulcer disease | 416 (21.3) | 85 (19.7) | 126 (19.4) | 110 (25.1) | 95 (21.8) |
| Genital warts | 19 (0.9) | 10 (2.3) | 4 (0.6) | 4 (0.9) | 1 (0.2) |
| Urethral discharge | 858 (43.9) | 181 (41.9) | 278 (42.8) | 202 (46.1) | 197 (45.2) |
| Other‡ | 480 (24.6) | 110 (25.5) | 192 (29.6) | 81 (18.5) | 97 (22.2) |
| Number of diagnoses, n (%) | |||||
| 1 | 1823 (93.2) | 409 (94.7) | 592 (91.2) | 417 (95.2) | 405 (92.9) |
| ≥2 | 132 (6.8) | 23 (5.3) | 57 (8.8) | 21 (4.8) | 31 (7.1) |
*The denominator is the total number of people whose data were available.
†This is a count of all diagnoses. Some patients had more than one diagnosis on a single visit.
‡The other diagnoses/syndromes include scrotal swelling, persistent urethral discharge, phimosis, paraphimosis, anorectal infections and other non-STI diagnoses.
SMS, short-messaging services; STI, sexually transmitted infections.