Background Among sexually transmitted infections (STIs), Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) is the most common non-viral STI worldwide. However, in Europe, a limited number of studies, mostly on specific risk groups, have described a low TV prevalence. Therefore a large multi-cohort study was performed to investigate the prevalence of TV among three distinct Dutch patient populations. Additionally, the relationship between Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and TV co-infection was assessed.

Methods 2089 participants, men and women, were included between 2008 and 2012 from three distinct cohorts. A total of 575 participants from the population-based national Chlamydia Screening Intervention (CSI) study, 465 attendees of the STI-clinic South Limburg and 602 patients from general practitioners (GPs) were included. An additional number of CT positives (n = 447) was included to assess TV and CT co-infection. All participants were assessed forTV using real-time PCR.

Results The overall prevalence of TV was 0.9% among the three distinct cohorts and no significant differences between the 3 study populations were observed (GP patients (1.5%), STI clinic (0.6%) and population-based cohort (0.7%)). TV was found in 0.7% of the CT positives and a similar 1.1% among CT negatives. In contrast to CT prevalence which significantly decreased with increasing age, TV prevalence was highest in the age group > 40 years (2%), but did not differ significantly from other age-groups.

Conclusion This large multi-cohort study confirms the low burden for TV in the Netherlands (< 2%) as in most European countries. We have no indication for standard TV testing in regular care.