ArticleJournal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999)2020
Sex Work Is Associated With Increased Vaginal Microbiome Diversity in Young Women From Mombasa, Kenya.
Article in Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Special Issue: New Horizons in HIV and Reproductive Health Research: HIV Acquisition and Reproductive Health in Key Populations.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2026Review
- Association between Sexual Activity during Pregnancy, Pre- and Early-Term Birth, and Vaginal Cytokine Inflammation: A Prospective Study of Black Women.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- Advances in integrative African genomics.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2022Review
- Article
- Endocervical Regulatory T Cells Are Associated With Decreased Genital Inflammation and Lower HIV Target Cell Abundance.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough nonoptimal vaginal bacteria and inflammation have been associated with increased HIV risk, the upstream drivers of these phenotypes are poorly defined in young African women.
settingMombasa, Kenya.
methodsWe characterized vaginal microbiome and cytokine profiles of sexually active young women aged 14-24 years (n = 168) in 3 study groups: those engaging in formal sex work, in transactional sex, and nonsex workers. Vaginal secretions were collected using self-inserted SoftCup, and assayed for cytokines and vaginal microbiome through multiplex ELISA and 16S rRNA sequencing, respectively. Epidemiological data were captured using a validated questionnaire.
resultsThe median age of participants was 20 years (interquartile range: 18-22 years). Approximately two-thirds of young women (105/168) had vaginal microbial communities characterized by Gardnerella and/or Prevotella spp. dominance; a further 29% (49/168) were predominantly Lactobacillus iners. Microbiome clustering explained a large proportion of cytokine variation (>50% by the first 2 principal components). Age was not associated with vaginal microbial profiles in bivariable or multivariable analyses. Women self-identifying as sex workers had increased alpha (intraindividual) diversity, independent of age, recent sexual activity, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections (beta = 0.47, 95% confidence interval: 0.05 to 0.90, P = 0.03). Recent sex (number of partners or sex acts last week, time since last vaginal sex) correlated with increased alpha diversity, particularly in participants who were not involved in sex work.
conclusionNonoptimal vaginal microbiomes were common in young Kenyan women and associated with sex work and recent sexual activity, but independent of age. Restoring optimal vaginal microflora may represent a useful HIV prevention strategy.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.