Global Burden of Sexually Transmitted Infections: 1990 - 2019

Abstract BackgroundSexually transmitted infections (STIs) are major public health problems worldwide. Understanding the disease burden are crucial for health policy making. This study was to assess global and regional STIs incidence, mortality and disability‐adjusted life years (DALYs) from 1990 to 2019.Methods­­­­Data were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease study 2019, which is an open database for download. Age-standardized rate and estimated annual percentage changes (EAPC) were calculated to evaluate the burden of STIs over time.ResultsIn 2019, the total number of incident cases of STIs was 769.85 million worldwide. The age-standardized incidence rate was stable from 1990 to 2019 with the EAPC of −0.04 (95% UI: −0.09 to 0.01). In 2019, the number of deaths caused by STIs was 89.89×103, which was 15.51% lower than that of 1990 (106.52×103). A decreasing trend from 1990 to 2019 was observed in the age-standardized death and DALYs. The age-standardized death and DALYs rate due to STIs were the highest in the younger age (<14 years old). As for different diseases, syphilis was the least common STIs with an age-standardized incidence rate of 178.48/100,000, while syphilis was also the main contributor to the age-standardized death and DALYs rate. These two indicators were negatively associated with sociodemographic level.ConclusionsThe global incidence of STIs has been persistently high from 1990 to 2019, while the age-standardized death and DALYs rate has decreased recently. More attention should be paid to the younger population, patients with syphilis and regions with low sociodemographic index.