ArticleEpidemiology and infection2017
Anorectal swabs as a marker of male-to-male sexual exposure in STI surveillance systems.
Article in Epidemiology and infection, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sustained viral suppression among people with HIV in the era of Undetectable = Untransmittable (U = U) in Australia.AIDS (London, England) · 2026Article
- Identifying Subgroups of People Living With HIV in British Columbia, Canada Based on Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infection Testing and Diagnostic Laboratory Data: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Hepatitis B susceptibility and subsequent vaccination in priority populations across an Australian sentinel surveillance network, 2017Epidemiology and infection · 2025Article
- Progress towards the UNAIDS 2030 HIV prevention target in New South Wales, Australia: a population-based study.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2025Article
- Syphilis testing, incidence, and reinfection among gay and bisexual men in Australia over a decade spanning HIV PrEP implementation: an analysis of surveillance data from 2012 to 2022.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2024Article
- Annual hepatitis C testing and positive tests among gay and bisexual men in Australia from 2016 to 2022: a serial cross-sectional analysis of sentinel surveillance data.Sexually transmitted infections · 2024Article
- Risk of Primary Incident Hepatitis C Infection Following Bacterial Sexually Transmissible Infections Among Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia From 2016 to 2020.Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Trends in Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men After Rapid Scale-up of Preexposure Prophylaxis in Victoria, Australia.Sexually transmitted diseases · 2020Article
- Risk of Subsequent HIV Infection Following Sexually Transmissible Infections Among Men Who Have Sex With Men.Open forum infectious diseases · 2019Article
- Pathology Laboratory Surveillance in the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Blood-Borne Viruses: Protocol for a Cohort Study.JMIR research protocols · 2019Article
- Monitoring the Control of Sexually Transmissible Infections and Blood-Borne Viruses: Protocol for the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance (ACCESS).JMIR research protocols · 2018Article
- Assessing the Impacts of Integrated Decision Support Software on Sexual Orientation Recording, Comprehensive Sexual Health Testing, and Detection of Infections Among Gay and Bisexual Men Attending General Practice: Observational Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Identification of priority populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) is important in surveillance systems to monitor trends of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). We explored using routinely collected non-behavioural data as a means to establish MSM status in surveillance by assessing anorectal swab as a marker of male-to-male sexual exposure. We used chlamydia testing data from a sexual health clinic, 2007-2012. Men reporting any male sexual partner(s) in the previous 12 months were considered MSM. The dataset was split into development and validation samples to develop a univariate predictive model and assess the model fit. The dataset included 30 358 individual men and 48 554 episodes of STI testing; 45% were among reported MSM and an anorectal swab was performed in 40% of testing episodes. Anorectal swabbing had good diagnostic performance as a marker for MSM status (sensitivity = 87%, specificity = 99%, positive predictive value = 98·6%, negative predictive value = 90·3%). The model showed good fit against the internal validation sample (area under the curve = 0·93). Anorectal swabs are a valid marker of MSM behaviour in surveillance data from sexual health clinics, and they are likely to be particularly useful for monitoring STI trends among MSM with higher risk behaviour.
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