Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37682827›Full record

ArticlePloS one2023

The relationship between age and sex partner counts during the mpox outbreak in the UK, 2022.

Julii Brainard, Louise E Smith, Henry W W Potts, G James Rubin

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Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Julii BrainardNorwich Medical School, University of East Anglia Norwich, Norwich, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-5272-7995
Louise E SmithInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-1277-2564
Henry W W PottsInstitute of Health Informatics, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-6200-8804
G James RubinInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.

Funding

Department of Health
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundUnderstanding the dynamics of an infectious disease outbreak linked to sexual activity requires valid expectations of likely counts of unique sex partners during the infectious period. Typically, age is the key demographic trait linked to expected partner count, with many transmission models removing adults from the sexually active pool abruptly at a pre-specified age threshold. Modelling the rate of decline in partner counts with age would benefit from a better description of empirical evidence.

methodsDuring the 2022 mpox epidemic in the UK, we asked individuals about their partner counts in the preceding three weeks, which is about the same as usual infectious period for persons with active mpox. We used negative binomial regression (all responses) and Weibull regression (non-zero responses) to analyse the relationship between age and partner counts, adjusted for other demographic data (such as education level and occupation), sub-dividing by three types of respondent: men who have sex with men (MSM), men who have sex with women, and women who have sex with men.

resultsMost respondents had zero or one recent partner, all distributions were skewed. There was a relatively linear declining relationship between age and partner counts for heterosexual partnership groups, but a peak in partner counts and concurrency for MSMs in middle age years (age 35-54), especially for MSM who seemed to be in a highly sexually active subgroup.

conclusionUseful data were collected that can be used to describe sex partner counts during the British mpox epidemic and that show distinctive partner count relationships with age, dependent on partnership type.

Indexed as

Mpox, MonkeypoxSexual and Gender MinoritiesAdultDisease OutbreaksFemaleHomosexuality, MaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedSexual PartnersUnited Kingdom

Identifiers

PMID37682827
PMCPMC10490899

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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.