title: Characteristics associated with genital herpes testing among young adults: assessing factors from two national data sets.
abstract: OBJECTIVES AND PARTICIPANTS: in the United States, genital herpes (GH) prevalence is 10.6% among 20- to 29-year-olds and about 90% of seropositive persons do not know their status. This study investigated individual characteristics associated with GH screening and diagnosis in sexually active young adults aged 18 to 24.
  
  
  METHODS
  two data sets were analyzed: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Wave III from 2001 to 2002 (n = 11,570) and the American College Health Association's (ACHA's) national survey of college students from 2000 to 2006 (n = 222,470).
  
  
  RESULTS
  in Add Health, 18.4% of females and 7.1% of males self-reported GH testing in the previous 12 months, compared to 0.7% for self-reported GH diagnosis in ACHA. GH testing and diagnosis was strongly positively associated with a history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the previous 12 months for both sexes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  integrating herpes screening and testing into HIV and standard STI screening would identify more infections.
authors.affiliation: American Social Health Association, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA. LisaGilbert@ASHAstd.org
authors.forename: Lisa K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Gilbert
authors.forename: Brooke A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Levandowski
authors.forename: Craig M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D018258:Herpesvirus 2, Human / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult