Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Men of 25 - 60 Years in Iran

Background: Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), especially in men, can lead to multiple morbidities and facilitate the transmission of serious pathogens, such as the human immunodeficiency virus. The present study used the data from a nationwide survey on male morbidities to estimate the prevalence of STDs among men in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study used the data from a nationwide project on male reproductive morbidities in 2007. A total of 2296 men within the age range of 25 - 60 years were recruited by systematic cluster sampling from four provinces (i.e., Golestan, Hormozgan, Kermanshah, and Isfahan, Iran). The data on the symptoms of STDs, including genital secretion, pushing out, itching or genital ulcers, and lymphadenopathy of the inguinal area after sexual contact, were collected by trained urologists. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS software (version18.0, Chicago, IL, USA). The independent samples t-test and chi-square test were used for data analysis. Results: A total of 2296 men with a mean age value of 39.95 ± 10.3 years were interviewed in this study. Two-thirds of all the subjects (75%) were aware of using condoms in suspected sexual relationships; however, only 69% of the aforementioned subjects used condoms in those circumstances. Overall, 14 subjects (0.6%) had one type of STDs at the study time. Moreover, 110 subjects (4.7%) answered “yes” to the question of whether they were referred to a physician for sexual problems. Conclusions: The prevalence of STDs is still low among the male population in Iran. Careful and well-designed surveillance systems to monitor the incidence of STDs and proper preventive measures to restrict the spread of sexually transmitted pathogens are among the proposed recommendations.