The penile microbiota of Black South African men: relationship with human papillomavirus and HIV infection

BMC Microbiology

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the 238 heterosexually-active Black South African men

Characteristic	Participants (N = 238)
Age (years)^a	36.0 (30.0–44.0)
Age at sexual debut (years)^ab	17.0 (15.0–18.0)
Number of lifetime sexual partners	6.0 (3.0–13.0)
Number of sexual acts with study partner in last month^ab	4.0 (2.0–10.0)
Current use of condom (% (n/N))	64.1 (141/220)
HPV-positive (% (n/N))	54.6 (130/238)
HR-HPV-positive (% (n/N))	42.9 (102/238)
HIV-positive (% (n/N))	37.0 (88/238)
CD4⁺ T-cell count if HIV-positive (cells/μl)^ab	334 (232–478)
HIV viral load if HIV-positive (copies/ml)^ab	4.1 log₁₀ (3.7–4.7)
Circumcised (% (n/N))	94.3 (215/228)
Cigarette use (% (n/N))
Never smoked	16.9 (40/237)
Ex-smoker	16.9 (40/237)
Current smoker	66.2 (157/237)

Abbreviations: HPV Human papillomavirus, HR-HPV High-risk human papillomavirus, HIV Human immunodeficiency virus
^aContinuous variables are expressed as medians with interquartile ranges (IQRs, at 25th and 75th percentiles)
^bData was not available on the age at sexual debut for three men, lifetime number of sexual partners of four men, number of sexual acts with study partner in the last month of six men, CD4⁺ T-cell count of one man and viral load measurement for 31 men.

ISSN: 1471-2180