Chlamydia trachomatis infection seroprevalence among women with normal and abnormal cervical smears and its implication for Nigerian cervical cancer screening

Abstract

The oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV) causes transient infections of the cervix, hence other co-factors can potentiate the formation of cervical epithelial cell abnormalities. This study was aimed at determining the seroprevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among women with normal and abnormal Papanicolaou smear cytology results. This was a hospital-based cross-sectional comparative study in which study participants were conveniently recruited from January to June,2021. The 50 cases and 50 controls were women with abnormal and normal Papanicolaou smear cytology results respectively. Both groups had blood samples collected for anti- Chlamydia trachomatis antibody test. The data was analyzed with the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (IBM SPSS, Armonk, New York, USA) version 24.0 for windows. The categorical and continuous variables were analyzed with chi square(X2) and Student’s t tests respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the associated factors for Chlamydia trachomatis infection among the respondents. P-value < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. The overall seroprevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection was 27%. Positive Chlamydia infection had a significant association with cervical epithelial cell abnormalities (P- value = 0.001). Positive history of multiple sexual partners and coitarche at age of < 18 years were associated factors for Chlamydia trachomatis infection. This study identified an association between history of Chlamydia trachomatis infection and cervical epithelial cell abnormalities.