Epidemiological characteristics and socioeconomic factors of sexually transmitted infections in China during 2002-2021.

BACKGROUND

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, gonorrhea, and syphilis, pose significant public health challenges globally. In China, rising STI incidences are associated with rapid urbanization and changing sexual behaviors. This study aims to analyze the trends and socioeconomic factors of these three STIs in China.

METHODS

Incidence data for HIV, gonorrhea, and syphilis from 31 provinces (2002-2021) were obtained from the China Hygiene and Health Statistics Yearbook. JoinPoint regression was used to assess trends, hotspot analysis to identify spatial clusters, global principal component analysis (GPCA) to reduce data dimensionality, and a panel fixed-effects model (FEM) to identify influential factors.

RESULTS

The annual average percentage changes (AAPCs) in incidence were 20.68% for HIV, - 2.37% for gonorrhea, and 11.55% for syphilis. Hotspot analysis revealed persistent HIV clusters in western provinces, gonorrhea clusters in the eastern coastal and parts of central provinces, and expanding syphilis clusters from western and central provinces to the entire country. GPCA extracted three components, explaining 83% of the overall variance. PA1 includes factors such as nighttime light data (NLD) and population density (PD). PA2 includes passenger volume (PAX), the working-age population aged 15-64 (P15-64) and the number of healthcare institutions (HCIs). PA3 encompasses GDP per capita (pGDP) and the sex ratio (SR). FEM analysis showed that socioeconomic factors had varying impacts on the three STIs. HIV was negatively associated with PA1 (β = - 1.049, P < 0.05) and positively associated with PA2 (β = 0.614, P < 0.001), and negatively associated with PA3 (β = - 0.721, P < 0.001). Gonorrhea was positively associated with PA1 (β = 16.005, P < 0.001) and PA2 had strong positive correlations in most regions, while PA3 was not significant nationally. Syphilis had a negative association with PA3 at the national level (β = - 5.517, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates temporal and spatial variations in STI epidemiology in China from 2002 to 2021, reflecting socioeconomic development disparities. The findings highlight the need for geographically and socioeconomically tailored interventions to improve STI control strategies.