Average yearly rates of partner change* of 16–25 year olds from three ethnic groups in south east London
| Activity class† | % of population‡ | Mean rate of partner change (SD) | Index male | Index female | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Caribbean | Black African | White | Black Caribbean | Black African | White | |||
| *Calculated as the reported number of lifetime partners divided by the number of years since sexual debut. Those in their first year of sexual activity were assumed to have been sexually active for 6 months. | ||||||||
| †Formed by splitting total number of partnerships formed into quartiles. | ||||||||
| ‡Shows the proportion of population in each activity class. | ||||||||
| Owing to the small sample size, a single individual (black African male) with very high rates of partner change (17.5 partners per year, compared with the next highest in his group of 8.5 partners per year) had a disproportionate effect on the rates of infection predicted by the model. Recalculation of partner change rates, excluding this individual, generated incidences very close to those observed so these rates excluding this individual were used in further analyses. | ||||||||
| Source: Low N, Sterne JAC, McKevitt C, Connell P. Investigating ethnic and geographic variations in sexual health in South East London. 463 heterosexual 16–25 year olds of black Caribbean, black African or white ethnicity living in 14 electoral wards with the highest gonorrhoea rates in the former Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Authority area. Fieldwork by National Centre for Social Research, Jan 2000 to Jan 2001. | ||||||||
| 1 | 4.6 | 7.5 (1.7) | 9.9 (1.8) | 7.3 (1.2) | 5.0 (−) | 6.6 (1.2) | 3.6 (0.3) | 4.0 (1.4) |
| 2 | 8.7 | 3.9 (0.8) | 6.7 (0.9) | 4.5 (0.8) | 3.1 (0.1) | 3.4 (0.8) | 2.4 (0.5) | 2.8 (0.3) |
| 3 | 15.8 | 2.2 (0.4) | 3.8 (0.8) | 2.3 (0.4) | 2.2 (0.4) | 1.8 (0.4) | 1.3 (0.3) | 1.6 (0.4) |
| 4 | 70.9 | 0.5 (0.5) | 1.0 (0.8) | 0.5 (0.6) | 0.6 (0.6) | 0.5 (0.5) | 0.2 (0.3) | 0.4 (0.4) |