Prevalence of reproductive tract infections among women preparing to conceive in Chongqing, China: trends and risk factors

BACKGROUND: Reproductive tract infection has become a major public health issue all over the world for its high and growing prevalence. It can cause adverse pregnancy outcomes in pregnant women and their foetuses. This study aimed to investigate the trends and risk factors of the prevalence of reproductive tract infections among women who prepared to conceive in the Chongqing Municipality (China) from 2012 to 2016. METHODS: A multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2012 and December 2016. Women aged 20–49 years who intended to get pregnant were recruited for this study. All participants underwent preconception examination, which included testing for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, syphilis, bacterial vaginosis and candidiasis according to the national diagnostic standard. A total of 439,372 women with testing results for all six types of reproductive tract infections were included in our final analyses. Logistic regression and factor analysis were used to determine the possible sociodemographic factors associated with prevalence trends. RESULTS: In our study, the overall positive rate of RTIs among the 439,372 women of reproductive age was 5.03%. Candidiasis was the most common infection in our population (2.47%), followed by bacterial vaginosis (1.28%), syphilis (0.73%), T. vaginalis (0.49%), C. trachomatis (0.20%) and N. gonorrhoeae (0.06%). The prevalence of reproductive tract infections was highest among women aged 35 years and above, with a primary or lower education level, history of pregnancy, delivery, induced abortion, or spontaneous abortion. From 2012 to 2016, the trend of the overall prevalence of reproductive tract infections was V-shaped, decreasing steadily from 2012 to 2015, with a slight rise in 2016. Our results suggest that the distribution change of age, education level, gravidity, parity, and history of induced abortion influenced this trend. CONCLUSION: Since the number of high-risk women who intend to become pregnant is growing in the Chongqing Municipality, pre-conception positive preventions including health education, regular screening, and timely treatment of reproductive tract infections are needed to prevent the impact of reproductive tract infections on maternal health and infant safety. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12978-022-01502-x.