Cervical cancer is a common and deadly disease, especially in developing countries. We developed and implemented an interactive, tablet-based educational intervention to improve cervical cancer knowledge among women in rural Malawi. Chichewa-speaking adult women in six rural villages participated. Each woman took a pre-test, participated in the lesson, and then took a post-test. The lesson included information on cervical cancer symptoms, causes, risk factors, prevention, and treatment. Over the 6-month study period, 243 women participated. Women ranged in age from 18 to 77 years. Only 15% had education beyond primary school. Nearly half of participants (48%) had heard of cervical cancer prior to viewing the lesson. For these women, the median number of correct responses on the pre-test was 11 out of 20; after the lesson, they had a median of 18 correct responses (p<0.001). After the intervention, 93% of women indicated a desire for cervical cancer screening. Despite lack of familiarity with computers (96%), most women (94%) found the tablet easy to use. A tablet-based educational program was an effective, feasible and acceptable strategy to disseminate cervical cancer information to women with low education in rural Malawi. This method may be appropriate to distribute health information about other health topics in low-resource settings.

Background: Testing women for urogenital Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC) and Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) is common in sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics. However, women may not be routinely tested for rectal GC/CT. This may lead to missed infections in women reporting anal intercourse (AI). Methods: This was a retrospective review of all women who underwent rectal GC/CT testing from August 2012 to June 2013 at an STD clinic in Columbus, Ohio. All women who reported AI in the last year had a rectal swab collected for GC/CT nucleic acid amplification testing (n = 331). Using log-binomial regression models, we computed unadjusted and adjusted associations for demographic and behavioral factors associated with rectal GC/CT infection. Results: Participants (n = 331) were 47% African-American, with median age of 29 years. Prevalence of rectal GC was 6%, rectal CT was 13%, and either rectal infection was 19%. Prevalence of urogenital GC and CT was 7% and 13% respectively. Among women with rectal GC, 14% tested negative for urogenital GC. Similarly, 14% of women with rectal CT tested negative for urogenital CT. In unadjusted analyses, there was increased rectal GC prevalence among women reporting sex in the last year with an injection drug user, with a person exchanging sex for drugs or money, with anonymous partners, and while intoxicated/high on alcohol or illicit drugs. After multivariable adjustment, no significant associations persisted, but a trend of increased rectal GC prevalence was observed for women < 26 years of age ( p = 0.06) and those reporting sex while intoxicated/high on alcohol or drugs ( p = 0.05). For rectal CT, only age < 26 years was associated with prevalent infection in unadjusted models; this association strengthened after multivariable adjustment (prevalence ratio: 6.03; 95% confidence interval: 2.29-15.90). Conclusion: Nearly one in five women who reported AI in the last year had rectal GC or CT infection. Urogenital testing alone would have missed 14% of rectal infections. Standardized guidelines would increase rectal GC/CT testing in women and help detect missed infections.

Objective Low serum vitamin D levels have been associated with increased prevalence of the reproductive tract condition bacterial vaginosis (BV). The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effect of high-dose vitamin D supplementation on BV recurrence. Study design This randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial enrolled 118 women with symptomatic BV from an urban STD clinic (clinicaltrials.gov registration NCT01450462). All participants received 500mg oral metronidazole twice daily for seven days. Intervention participants (n=59) also received nine doses of 50,000 international units of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) over 24 weeks; control women (n=59) received matching placebo. Recurrent BV was assessed via Nugent scoring after 4, 12 and 24 weeks. We assessed the effect of the intervention using an intention-to-treat approach, fitting Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate recurrent BV over the follow-up period. Results Most participants (74%) were black, with a median age of 26 years. Median presupplementation serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] was similar across randomization arms: 16.6 ng/mL in the vitamin D arm and 15.8 ng/mL in the control arm. At trial completion, median 25(OH)D among women receiving vitamin D was 30.5 ng/mL, vs 17.8 ng/mL in control women; 16% of women receiving vitamin D and 57% receiving placebo remained vitamin D deficient (<20 ng/mL). BV prevalence among women randomized to vitamin D was very similar to those randomized to placebo at the 4- and 12-week visits, but by the 24-week visit, BV prevalence was 65% among women in the vitamin D arm and 48% among control women. BV recurrence was not reduced by vitamin D supplementation (intention-to-treat hazard ratio, 1.11; 95% confidence interval, 0.68-1.81). Among women experiencing recurrent BV, median time to recurrence was 13.7 weeks in the vitamin D arm and 14.3 weeks in the control arm. Conclusions Women receiving vitamin D experienced significant increases in serum 25(OH)D, but this increase was not associated with decreased BV recurrence in this high-risk STD clinic population.

Background Men who have sex with men (MSM) who report receptive anal intercourse (RAI) are currently recommended to undergo annual screening for rectal C. trachomatis (CT) and N. gonorrhoeae (GC) infection. Methods Using standard culture methods, we assessed prevalence of rectal GC/CT among MSM who reported RAI in the last year (n=326) at an urban STD clinic in a midwestern US city. A subset (n=125) also underwent rectal GC/CT screening via nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT). We examined associations between HIV status and prevalence of rectal GC and rectal CT using unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models. Results Prevalence of rectal GC, rectal CT and either rectal infection was 9%, 9% and 15% by culture and 24%, 23% and 38% by NAAT, respectively. HIV was not associated with rectal GC prevalence in unadjusted or adjusted analyses. HIV-positive status was significantly associated with increased rectal CT prevalence in unadjusted models (odds ratio (OR): 2.18, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04, 4.60); this association increased after multivariable adjustment (OR: 3.14, 95% CI: 1.37, 7.19). Conclusions MSM reporting RAI had high prevalence of rectal GC and rectal CT. HIV-positive status was significantly associated with prevalent rectal CT, but not with prevalent rectal GC.

BACKGROUND Bacterial vaginosis, a highly prevalent vaginal condition, is correlated with many adverse reproductive outcomes. In some studies, low vitamin D (measured as serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D, 25(OH)D) has been associated with increased prevalence of bacterial vaginosis. OBJECTIVES We examined the cross-sectional association between vitamin D status and prevalence of bacterial vaginosis, separately for pregnant and non-pregnant women. Using prospectively-collected data, we also characterized the effect of time-varying vitamin D status on incident bacterial vaginosis. STUDY DESIGN We quantified 25(OH)D in stored sera collected quarterly from 571 Zimbabwean women participating in the Hormonal Contraception and Risk of HIV Acquisition Study. The analysis was restricted to women not using hormonal contraception. We characterized associations between vitamin D insufficiency (defined as 25(OH)D ≤30 ng/mL vs. >30 ng/mL) and prevalence of bacterial vaginosis among non-pregnant women at the enrollment visit, and among pregnant women at the first follow-up visit that pregnancy was detected. Among women who were negative for bacterial vaginosis at enrollment (n=380), we also assessed the effect of time-varying vitamin D status on incident bacterial vaginosis. We used the Liaison 25 OH vitamin D total assay to measure 25(OH)D. Bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed via Nugent score. RESULTS At enrollment, prevalence of bacterial vaginosis was 31% and overall median 25(OH)D was 29.80 ng/mL (interquartile range: 24.70-34.30 ng/mL): 29.75 ng/mL (interquartile range: 25.15-33.95 ng/mL) among women with bacterial vaginosis and 29.90 ng/mL (interquartile range: 24.70-34.50 ng/mL) among women without bacterial vaginosis. Among pregnant women, the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis was 27% and overall median 25(OH)D was 29.90 ng/mL (interquartile range: 24.10-34.00 ng/mL): 30.80 ng/mL (interquartile range: 26.10-36.90 ng/mL) among women with bacterial vaginosis and 29.10 ng/mL (interquartile range: 23.80-33.45 ng/mL) among women without BV. Vitamin D levels ≤30 ng/mL were not associated with prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in non-pregnant women (adjusted prevalence ratio: 1.04; 95% confidence interval: 0.81-1.34) or pregnant women (adjusted prevalence ratio: 0.88, 95% confidence interval: 0.51-1.54). Vitamin D levels ≤30 ng/mL were similarly not associated with incident bacterial vaginosis (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.98, 95% confidence interval: 0.73-1.31). Our findings were robust to alternative specifications of vitamin D status including using a cutpoint for vitamin D deficiency of <20 ng/ml vs. ≥20 ng/mL, and modeling 25(OH)D as a continuous variable. CONCLUSION Among reproductive-age Zimbabwean women, insufficient vitamin D was not associated with increased BV prevalence or incidence. Given established associations between BV and poor reproductive outcomes, identification of factors leading to high BV prevalence is urgently needed.