SynthesisClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2018
Trends and Predictors of Syphilis Prevalence in the General Population: Global Pooled Analyses of 1103 Prevalence Measures Including 136 Million Syphilis Tests.
Synthesis in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epidemiology ofBMJ global health · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of the National Syphilis Prevention Program on the prevalence of syphilis among people living with HIV in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2025Pooled it
- Epidemiology of gonorrhea in countries of the Middle East and North Africa: systematic review, meta analyses, and meta regressions.BMC global and public health · 2024Pooled it
- Aetiology of vaginal discharge, urethral discharge, and genital ulcer in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-regression.PLoS medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Epidemiology of gonorrhoea: systematic review, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions, World Health Organization European Region, 1949 to 2021.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2024Pooled it
- Epidemiology of herpes simplex virus type 1 and genital herpes in Australia and New Zealand: systematic review, meta-analyses and meta-regressions.Epidemiology and infection · 2023Pooled it
- Epidemiology of herpes simplex virus type 1 in Canada: systematic review, meta-analyses, and meta-regressions.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Epidemiology of herpes simplex virus type 2 in Latin America and the Caribbean: systematic review, meta-analyses and metaregressions.Sexually transmitted infections · 2021Pooled it
- Epidemiology ofJournal of global health · 2019Pooled it
- Syphilis epidemiology in Jordan: prevalence, incidence, and seroreversion from 15 years of laboratory-based data.Scientific reports · 2026Observational
- Trend in the detection rate of syphilis among older adults: time series analysis, Brazil, 2014-2023.Epidemiologia e servicos de saude : revista do Sistema Unico de Saude do Brasil · 2026Article
- Detection of Treponema pallidum tpp47 DNA in clinical samples of syphilis patients.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Population Prevalence and Correlates of Syphilis in Rural, Southwestern Uganda.Open forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Overseas- and locally acquired sexually transmissible infections in Australia, 2017-23.Journal of travel medicine · 2025Article
- Article
- Integrated HIV and STIs response: Trends in syphilis incidence and uptake of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis in Zambia.Journal of public health in Africa · 2025Article
- Prevalence of syphilis infection among migrant workers in Qatar: a nationwide cross-sectional survey.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Syphilis infection prevalence in the Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
- Syphilis prevalence and correlates of infection among Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Colombia: findings of a cross-sectional biobehavioral survey.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2024Article
- Seroprevalence of Transfusion Transmissible Infections and Associated Risk Factors in Hospitalized Patients before Transfusion in Jinling Hospital Nanjing University: A Three-Year Retrospective Study.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: This study assessed levels, trends, and associations of observed syphilis prevalence in the general adult population using global pooled analyses. Methods: A standardized database of syphilis prevalence was compiled by pooling systematically gathered data. Random-effects meta-analyses and meta-regressions were conducted using data from the period 1990-2016 to estimate pooled measures and assess predictors and trends. Countries were classified by World Health Organization region. Sensitivity analyses were conducted. Results: The database included 1103 prevalence measures from 136 million syphilis tests across 154 countries (85% from women in antenatal care). Global pooled mean prevalence (weighted by region population size) was 1.11% (95% confidence interval [CI], .99-1.22). Prevalence predictors were region, diagnostic assay, sample size, and calendar year interacting with region. Compared to the African Region, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was 0.42 (95% CI, .33-.54) for the Region of the Americas, 0.13 (95% CI, .09-.19) for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 0.05 (95% CI, .03-.07) for the European Region, 0.21 (95% CI, .16-.28) for the South-East Asia Region, and 0.41 (95% CI, .32-.53) for the Western Pacific Region. Treponema pallidum hemagglutination assay (TPHA) only or rapid plasma reagin (RPR) only, compared with dual RPR/TPHA diagnosis, produced higher prevalence (AOR >1.26), as did smaller sample-size studies (<500 persons) (AOR >2.16). Prevalence declined in all regions; the annual AORs ranged from 0.84 (95% CI, .79-.90) in the Eastern Mediterranean to 0.97 (95% CI, .97-1.01) in the Western Pacific. The pooled mean male-to-female prevalence ratio was 1.00 (95% CI, .89-1.13). Sensitivity analyses confirmed robustness of results. Conclusions: Syphilis prevalence has declined globally over the past 3 decades. Large differences in prevalence persist among regions, with the African Region consistently the most affected.
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