Table 3.
Psychosocial impact of having a positive test result for Chlamydia trachomatis.
| Women | Men | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Infected Agree (n = 54) n (%) | Non-infected Agree (n = 122) n (%) | P-valuea | Infected Agree (n = 28) n (%) | Non-infected Agree (n = 73) n (%) | P-valuea | |
| Stigmatisation | ||||||
| • It is a private affair so I will not tell anyone | 29 (54) | 57 (47) | 0.448 | 14 (50) | 41 (56) | 0.549 |
| • I feel stigmatised talking about it | 17 (32) | 17 (14) | 0.012 | 8 (29) | 13 (18) | 0.326 |
| • I think it is embarrassing to talk about the test | 18 (33) | 17 (14) | 0.009 | 13(46) | 13 (18) | 0.005 |
| • I have a need for someone to talk to | 33 (61) | 50 (41) | 0.082 | 7 (25) | 18 (25) | 0.883 |
| Reaction to test answer | ||||||
| • I felt upset | 31 (57) | 9 (7) | <0.001 | 4 (14) | 0 (0) | 0.007 |
| • I felt despair | 32 (59) | 6 (5) | <0.001 | 6 (21) | 3 (4) | 0.022 |
| • I felt embarrassed | 23 (43) | 4 (3) | <0.001 | 8 (29) | 2 (3) | <0.001 |
| • It had no emotional impact on me | 10 (19) | 39 (32) | 0.047 | 9 (32) | 25 (34) | 0.708 |
| Relation to partner | ||||||
| • I feel ‘dirty’ | 16 (30) | 8 (7) | <0.001 | 7 (25) | 0 (0) | <0.001 |
| • I do not feel sexually attractive | 20 (37) | 8 (7) | <0.001 | 5 (18) | 7 (10) | 0.450 |
| • I feel relieved | 21 (40) | 84 (70) | <0.001 | 12 (43) | 56 (77) | <0.001 |
| • My partner was upset | 19 (35) | 6 (5) | <0.001 | 9 (32) | 3 (4) | <0.001 |
| • My partner was disappointed | 5 (9) | 2 (2) | 0.032 | 5 (18) | 3 (4) | 0.017 |
| •My partner was understanding | 42 (78) | 74 (61) | 0.598 | 21 (75) | 55 (75) | 0.891 |
| • My partner and I split up | 5 (9) | 1 (1) | 0.003 | 3 (11) | 0 (0) | 0.006 |
| Anxiety of infertility | ||||||
| • I do not think it will be a problem for me/my partner to become pregnant | 29 (54) | 74 (61) | 0.220 | 16 (57) | 53 (73) | 0.199 |
| • I do not consider my/my partner's chances of becoming pregnant different now compared with before | 29 (54) | 88 (72) | 0.005 | 19 (68) | 59 (81) | 0.146 |
| • I am nervous that my/my partner's chances of becoming pregnant are reduced | 32 (59) | 24 (20) | <0.001 | 15 (54) | 14 (19) | 0.002 |
| • My wish to become pregnant is more intense after the test than before | 10 (19) | 12 (10) | 0.191 | 4 (14) | 13 (18) | 0.489 |
All participants (C. trachomatis positive and C. trachomatis negative) were asked about their feelings and reaction to the C. trachomatis test result. They were given certain statements related to stigmatisation, reaction to test result, relation to partner and anxiety of infertility and were asked to mark if they fully agreed, somehow agreed, somehow disagreed or fully disagreed to the statement. The table shows the proportion of individuals who agreed (fully or somehow) to the statements. P-values reflect the difference between the infected and non-infected groups.
a
P-value is adjusted for age by a Mantel–Haenszel analysis.