AEGiS-13IAC: Female versus male condom in preventing STD's.

13th International AIDS Conference

Durban, South Africa - July 9-July 14, 2000

Female versus male condom in preventing STD's.

Int Conf AIDS 2000 Jul 9-14; 13:(abstract no. MoOrC129)

Latka M, French P, Latka M, Gollub E, Rogers C, Stein Z
M. Latka, New York Academy of Medicine, Center for Urban Epidemiologic Studies, 1216 Fifth Avenue, Room 556, New York, New York 10025, United States, Tel.: 212-822-7284, Fax: 212-876-6220, E-mail: mlatka@nyam.org

BACKGROUND:Only two clinical studies to date have evaluated the effectiveness the female condom in preventing sexually transmitted disease (STD). We compared the use-effectiveness of the female condom with the male condom in preventing four STDs.

METHODS:During a 12-month period all women attending Philadelphia's main STD clinic were randomized to one of three STD prevention interventions with small-group prevention education sessions and free condoms in accordance with randomization assignment. The assignments were 1) male condoms only or 2) female condoms only. A third group consisting of a prevention "hierarchy" is reported on elsewhere. Women's medical records were coded with their randomization assignment, and STD outcomes were extracted from medical records. STD outcomes were defined as laboratory diagnosis with chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis or trichomoniasis in the 2 years following the initial clinic visit. We calculated the post-intervention incidence rate ratio (IRR); and used generalized estimating equations (GEE) to compare the prevalence of all infections between arms during follow up.

RESULTS: 1434 women received either female condom (n = 851) or the male condom intervention (n = 583). There were no differences between arms in baseline demographics or contraceptive practices, nor in STD prevalence at baseline. Follow up was equal across arms (2.3 repeat visits on average, p = .64). There were no differences in STD rates between the female condom (5.27 per person months of observation) and male condom arm '6.12 per person months, IRR 0.86 (0.67-1.11), p = .25'; nor in the prevalence of infection between arms during the follow up period OR 0.94 (0.71-1.25) p = .67.

CONCLUSIONS:Those randomized to the female condom group fared just as well as women in the male condom group. Various interpretations of the results will be discussed

Keywords: AEGIS, Condoms, Condoms, Female, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Prevalence, Incidence, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Chlamydia Infections, Philadelphia, Human, Female, Male
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MoOrC129