Table 2

Syphilis incidence rate, crude and adjusted hazards ratios for syphilis incidence among HIV-infected men who attended the national referral centre for HIV in Singapore, 2006–2017

CharacteristicNo. of incident syphilis/PYFUIncidence per 100 PYFU
(95% CI)
Univariable modelMultivariable model*
cHR(95% CI)P valueaHR(95% CI)P value
Age at HIV diagnosis (years)
 15—2465/6859 (7 to 12)3.02(2.00 to 4.56)<0.0005 1.64 (1.05 to 2.56) 0.031
 25—3495/13047 (6 to 9)2.23(1.51 to 3.29)<0.00051.40(0.92 to 2.14)0.118
 35—4471/11706 (5 to 8)1.84(1.22 to 2.76)0.0031.35(0.88 to 2.06)0.174
 45+35/11253 (2 to 4)1.00Referent1.00Referent
Ethnic group
 Chinese205/32966 (5 to 7)3.11(0.97 to 3.11)0.064 1.82 (1.01 to 3.29) 0.046
 Malay49/6597 (6 to 10)4.00(1.13 to 4.00)0.0201.85(0.97 to 3.52)0.063
 Indian and others12/3304 (2 to 6)1.00Referent1.00Referent
Marital status
 Single188/27597 (6 to 8)1.00Referent
 Ever married22/9832 (1 to 3)0.34(0.22 to 0.52)<0.0005
 Unknown56/54310 (8 to 13)1.56(1.16 to 2.10)0.004
HIV transmission risk group
 Heterosexual34/15332 (2 to 3)1.00Referent1.00Referent
 MSM223/24779 (8 to 10)4.16(2.90 to 5.97)<0.0005 3.29 (2.22 to 4.87) <0.0005
 IDU1/215 (0 to 27)1.96(0.27 to 14.31)0.5092.15(0.28 to 16.24)0.459
 Sexual and IDU4/1353 (1 to 8)1.36(0.48 to 3.84)0.5601.48(0.52 to 4.20)0.464
 Others and unknown4/1173 (1 to 9)1.43(0.51 to 4.04)0.4981.44(0.51 to 4.07)0.492
Period of HIV diagnosis
 2006–200872/17144 (3 to 5)1.00Referent1.00Referent
 2009–2011100/16236 (5 to 7)2.01(1.45 to 2.79)<0.0005 1.96 (1.41 to 2.74) <0.0005
 2012–201472/7979 (7 to 11)4.13(2.83 to 6.02)<0.0005 3.96 (2.68 to 5.83) <0.0005
 2015–201722/15015 (9 to 22)9.38(5.39 to 16.32)<0.0005 7.94 (4.52 to 13.95) <0.0005
Prior AIDS diagnosis
 No209/33686 (5 to 7)1.00Referent
 Yes57/9176 (5 to 8)1.00(0.75 to 1.35)0.976
Ever on ART
 Yes262/42496 (5 to 7)1.00Referent
 No4/3511 (3 to 29)2.42(0.90 to 6.54)0.081
  • *Adjusted for age at HIV diagnosis, ethnic group, HIV transmission risk group and period of HIV diagnosis. Significant associations in the multivariable model were highlighted in bold.

  • IDU, intravenous drug use; PYFU, person-years of follow-up; aHR, adjusted HR; cHR, crude HR.