ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1580964
This article is part of the Research TopicTowards Control of the HIV epidemic: Trends in Epidemiology and Emerging Drug Resistance in the Integrase Inhibitor EraView all 3 articles
Global, regional, and national burden and trends of syphilis among women of childbearing age from 1990 to 2021
Provisionally accepted
- 1Public Heath Service Center, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China, Shenzhen, China
- 2Baoan District Chronic Disease Prevention and Treatment Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
- 3Shenzhen Pingshan District People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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Background Syphilis represents a significant sexual health concern for women of childbearing age (WCBA) worldwide. However, information regarded the burden and trends associated with this disease is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the changes in syphilis burden among WCBA aged 15-49 years from 1990 to 2021 at global, regional, and national levels.Methods The extensive information was gathered from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 database concerning the incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) related to syphilis in WCBA aged 15-49 across 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2021. To quantify temporal trends, The estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) was calculated in age-standardized rate (ASR) for incidence, prevalence, and DALYs based on age group, region, and sociodemographic index (SDI). The relationship between ASR and SDI was examined using spearman correlation analysis. Results In 2021, there were 20.48 million prevalent cases, 5.36 million new syphilis cases, and 39.59 thousand DALYs among WCBA, reflecting increases of 45.85%, 46.96%, and 16.08%, respectively, since 1990. Over 32 years, global rates of prevalence, incidence, and DALYs declined, with EAPCs of -0.50, -0.35, and -1.30. However, high-middle SDI regions experienced rising trends in incidence (EAPC: 0.28) and prevalence (EAPC: 0.22). The Low-middle SDI region had the highest syphilis cases among WCBA, accounting for about one-third of the global total. Notably, the 20-24 age group had the highest incidence rate at 467.35 per 100,000.Conclusions Our findings highlight a decline in the global prevalence of syphilis from 1990 to 2021, the burden of this disease remains significant in low- and middle-income countries and regions. The development of more effective strategies to prevent and reduce the burden of syphilis is a pressing need.
Keywords: Syphilis, Women of childbearing age, burden of disease, estimated annual percentage change, Age-standardized rate
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 02 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Yan, Ye, Li, Deng and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhiheng Zhou, Shenzhen Pingshan District People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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