Table 4.

Mean and median duration of symptoms in men who have sex with men diagnosed with primary and secondary syphilis at MSHC from 2007–2013, stratified by risk factors

	Number of symptomatic patients reporting duration of symptoms	Duration of symptoms (mean ± s.d.), days	Differences between group means (P value)*	Duration of symptoms (median, IQR), days	Differences between group medians (P value)†
Primary syphilis	194	13·6 ± 14·3	—	9 (6–14)	—
Country of birth			0·867		0·494
Australia	115	12·9 ± 14·4		7 (6–14)
Overseas	61	13·2 ± 11·9		10 (6–14)
Sex overseas			0·490		0·843
Yes	23	15·4 ± 20·2		10 (5–14)
No	88	13·2 ± 12·1		9 (7–14)
Injecting drug use			0·161		0·673
Yes	9	19·9 ± 21·3		10 (7–28)
No	104	13·1 ± 13·1		9 (6–14)
HIV serostatus			0·066		0·131
Positive	40	9·9 ± 7·4		7 (5·5–14)
Negative	154	14·6 ± 15·5		10 (6–14)
Secondary syphilis	155	23·7 ± 26·8	—	14 (7–30)	—
Country of birth			0·107		0·226
Australia	95	25·6 ± 29·3		14 (7–21)
Overseas	49	18·1 ± 18·2		14 (7–30)
Sex overseas			0·975		0·399
Yes	18	27·9 ± 25·9		21 (14–30)
No	80	27·7 ± 32·1		16 (7–30)
Injecting drug use			0·364		0·551
Yes	11	20·2 ± 18·0		19·5 (7–35)
No	90	29·1 ± 31·9		18 (5–25·5)
HIV serostatus			0·132		0·042
Positive	39	18·1 ± 22·4		8 (5–21)
Negative	116	25·6 ± 27·9		15 (7–30)

IQR, Interquartile range.

^*Independent two-sample t test.

^†Mann–Whitney U test.