Comparison of demographics, clinical history and sexual behaviour between the spontaneous clearance and no spontaneous clearance groups
| Spontaneous clearance group (n=83) | No spontaneous clearance group (n=322) | P value | |
| Age (years), mean (SD) | 30.4 (9.72) | 29.4 (9.90) | 0.380* |
| (Min;Max) | (18.1;70.2) | (16.1; 69.5) | |
| Gender, n (%) | |||
| Female | 19 (22.9) | 97 (30.1) | 0.188 |
| Male | 64 (77.1) | 224 (69.8) | |
| Trans | 0 | 1 (0.3) | – |
| Sexual orientation (men), n (%) | |||
| Heterosexual | 10 (15.6) | 24 (10.7) | 0.283 |
| MSM | 54 (84.4) | 200 (89.3) | |
| Number of partners in the last 3 months, median (IQR) | 3 (1–4) | 2 (1–5) | 0.966‡ |
| (Min;Max) | (0;100) | (0;120) | |
| Number of previous NG episodes, n (%) | |||
| None/unknown | 46 (55.4) | 188 (58.4) | 0.434 |
| One | 26 (31.3) | 80 (24.8) | |
| Two or more | 11 (13.3) | 54 (16.8) | |
| HIV status, n (%) | |||
| Negative | 62 (74.7) | 210 (65.2) | 0.213 |
| Positive | 8 (9.6) | 52 (16.1) | |
| Unknown | 13 (15.7) | 60 (18.6) | |
| Concurrent CT, n (%) | |||
| Negative | 72 (88.9) | 245 (78.0) | 0.029 |
| Positive | 9 (11.1) | 69 (22.0) | |
| Interval between last sexual contact and enrolment test (days), median (IQR) | 14 (6–28) | 14 (7–28) | 0.978‡ |
| (Min;Max) | (1;140) | (0;210) | |
| Genital discharge, n (%) | |||
| No | 74 (89.2) | 269 (83.5) | 0.205 |
| Yes | 9 (10.8) | 53 (16.5) | |
| Dysuria, n (%) | |||
| No | 79 (95.2) | 280 (87.0) | 0.035 |
| Yes | 4 (4.8) | 42 (13.0) | |
| Bleeding symptoms (intermenstrual or postcoital bleeding), n (%) | |||
| No | 17 (89.5) | 79 (81.4) | 0.521† |
| Yes | 2 (10.5) | 18 (18.6) | |
| Rectal symptoms (rectal discharge, pain, bleeding, tenesmus or constipation), n (%) | |||
| No | 79 (95.2) | 301 (93.5) | 0.566 |
| Yes | 4 (4.8) | 21 (6.5) | |
| Pharyngeal symptom—sore throat, n (%) | |||
| No | 66 (79.5) | 268 (83.2) | 0.428 |
| Yes | 17 (20.5) | 54 (16.8) | |
| NAAT platform used for pretrial testing, n (%) | |||
| Hologic Aptima combo 2 Assay | 60 (72.3) | 248 (77.0) | 0.270 |
| Becton Dickinson ProbeTec ET CT/NG Amplified DNA Assay | 21 (25.3) | 59 (18.3) | |
| Other | 2 (2.4) | 15 (4.7) | |
*Independent sample t-test.
†Fisher’s exact test for data with group size <5.
‡Mann-Whitney U test for non-normally distributed data.
CT, Chlamydia trachomatis; MSM, man who has sex with men; NAAT, Nucleic acid amplification test; NG, Neisseria gonorrhoeae.