Characteristics associated with genital herpes testing among young adults: assessing factors from two national data sets.

ABSTRACT

UNLABELLED OBJECTIVES AND PARTICIPANTS: in the United States, genital herpes (GH) prevalence is 10.6% among 20- to 29-year-olds and about 90% of seropositive persons do not know their status. This study investigated individual characteristics associated with GH screening and diagnosis in sexually active young adults aged 18 to 24. METHODS: two data sets were analyzed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Wave III from 2001 to 2002 (n = 11,570) and the American College Health Association's (ACHA's) national survey of college students from 2000 to 2006 (n = 222,470). RESULTS: in Add Health, 18.4% of females and 7.1% of males self-reported GH testing in the previous 12 months, compared to 0.7% for self-reported GH diagnosis in ACHA. GH testing and diagnosis was strongly positively associated with a history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the previous 12 months for both sexes. CONCLUSIONS: integrating herpes screening and testing into HIV and standard STI screening would identify more infections.