Background: Chlamydia trachomatis is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) throughout the world and its annual incidence is reported to be around 50 million cases. High-risk sexual behaviors are among the predisposing factors for STIs.
Objective: The present study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and the factors affecting it in patients with high-risk sexual behaviors who had attended clinic of high risk sexual behavior of Urmia between October 2015 and June 2016.
Material and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at Behavior Disorders Clinic in Urmia. One hundred and seventy six patients who had attended the clinic were selected using convenient sampling. A questionnaire was filled out by the participants and a 5 cc sample of their blood was collected to determine their serological level of antibodies. The participants' blood serum samples were analyzed by ELISA. Descriptive tests, T-test, and Chi-square test were run to analyze the data. All the statistical analyses were done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 23.
Results: The results indicated that 52.3% of the attendees of the Behavior Disorders Clinic in Urmia were single, 78.4% had a sexual partner except from their spouse, 31.8% had multiple sexual partners, and 8.52% had a high-risk partner. The results also revealed that there was a significant relationship between gender and presence of anti-Chlamydia antibodies (p=0.02). However, no significant relationship was observed between other demographic characteristics or history of high-risk behaviors and presence of anti- Chlamydia antibodies.
Conclusion: Since the frequency of positive IgM was 11.9% in the present study, and Chlamydia trachomatis infections are mostly asymptomatic, early diagnosis and treatment of this pathogen can have a very important role in public health improvement. Screening individuals with high-risk sexual behavior is recommended.