Heterosexual gonorrhoea at St Thomas' - I: Patient characteristics and implications for targeted STD and HIV prevention strategies

This paper compares the socio-demographic characteristics of patients with gonorrhoea with a control group of other attendees to an inner-London genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic. Between 16 May and 21 December 1994 inclusive there were 312 culture-confirmed heterosexually-acquired cases of Neisseria gonorrhoeae treated in our clinic: 192 (61.54%) men and 120 (38.46%) women. There were significant differences between the population of cases and controls. Both male (z = -5.36, p <0.001) and female (z = -6.6, P <0.001) cases were younger than controls. Cases were more likely to be black African-Caribbean than were controls and these differences were more marked in men (χ2 = 47.85, P <0.001). Cases were also more likely to reside in south London postal districts than were controls (χ2 = 24.98, P <0.001). The implications of these findings for targeted health interventions are discussed and we suggest avenues for further work.