Asymptomatic bacterial vaginosis and associated risk factors among undergraduate in a tertiary institution in Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a disease condition in women with adverse health outcomes. Proper clinical diagnosis of BV is difficult because a larger percentage of women are asymptomatic until they come down with its sequaele. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic BV among undergraduate female students of Babcock University in Ogun State Nigeria and to detect the risk factors associated with it. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study involving 200 asymptomatic undergraduate female student of Babcock University from September 2018 to November 2019. Information was obtained, using structured questionnaire, on sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics considered risk factors of the respondents. High vaginal swabs were collected from each of the participants, made into thin smears and were Gram stained. Modified Nugent criteria were used to analyze the specimen and make a diagnosis of BV. The data were analyzed by IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 20 (SPSS Chicago, IL, USA). Results: The prevalence of asymptomatic BV among the study participants was 35/200 (17.5%). Vaginal douching (Odd's ratio [OR] = 3.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.49–7.33), smoking (OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.16–8.80), previous history of reproductive tract infection (OR = 16, 95% CI 3.99–64.11), and wearing of nylon underwears (OR = 5.21, 95% CI: 1.23–21.88) were the factors with increased likelihood of BV on multivariate analysis. Conclusion: The prevalence of BV among the asymptomatic population in this study is high. The risk factors found suggest that there should be preventive program strategies such as education on risky behaviors.