Bacterial vaginosis in a family practice population

To determine and evaluate the prevalence of bacterial vaginosis diagnosed according to three sets of diagnostic criteria in three well-defined groups of non-pregnant women attending a family practice, and to determine the proportion of women diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis during a year involving the entire population registered at the practice.

During a year, bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed both according to the composite clinical diagnosis, a new wet mount diagnosis, and Nugent's gram stain diagnosis for bacterial vaginosis in women of reproductive age attending with new episodes either of abnormal vaginal discharge, other genito-urinary symptoms, or for a routine check-up.

In non-pregnant women, bacterial vaginosis was diagnosed in a third of those with abnormal vaginal discharge (n=189), and in a tenth of those without, regardless of whether they had other genito-urinary symptoms (n=186) or not (n=273). Including all examined women, at least 11%, 13%, and 16% of the 880 women registered at the practice, were diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis according to the composite clinical, the wet mount, and the gram stain diagnoses, respectively. The results were based on the 57% of the women who attended during the year. The prevalence data differed significantly according to which diagnostic method we used, the composite clinical lowest, the wet mount intermediate, and the gram stain highest.

Both well-defined criteria of inclusion and unison diagnostic procedures are necessary for reliable comparison and generalization of prevalence data of bacterial vaginosis.