title: STI phase and the geography of sexual partnerships: prevalence of long-distance sexual contacts among chlamydia, gonorrhea, and coinfected STI cases in Manitoba, Canada.
abstract: We utilized public health data and a geographic information system (ArcGIS) to study long-distance sexual partnerships (opposite and same sex partnerships) among chlamydia, gonorrhea, and coinfected STI (sexually transmitted infection) cases. The top 10% of relationships among chlamydia and gonorrhea cases and their contacts equaled or exceeded 198 km and 237 km respectively; the top 15% of partnerships among coinfected cases equaled or exceeded 207 km. This research also detected proportionately more long-distance partnerships among gonorrhea cases than among chlamydia cases. Wasserheit and Aral's four-phase model for understanding the impact of control programs on STI incidence over time offers one framework for interpreting these results: as chlamydia was in an early decline phase during the period under study, while gonorrhea had reached a phase of low endemicity, our results could suggest that in later phases of an STI control program, the overall proportion of long-distance relationships among cases and contacts may increase.
authors: Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 6jdh3@queensu.ca
authors: Janelle
authors: J
authors: Hippe
authors: Ann M
authors: AM
authors: Jolly
mesh_terms: D016358:Contact Tracing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D062305:Geographic Mapping; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008350:Manitoba / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*