Perceived life stress and bacterial vaginosis

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal condition produced by overgrowth of anaerobic bacteria. Consequences of the condition may include preterm birth and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Because stress can suppress immune function, increased stress might increase the risk of BV. Our objective was to determine whether life stress was associated with risk of bacterial vaginosis in a cohort of nonpregnant women.

A total of 411 African American women receiving routine gynecological care were recruited from two New York City hospitals. They were asked to rate the pressure they felt over the last week as a result of change, relationships, sickness, and finances using the Global Assessment of Recent Stress scale. An overall measure of stress was created by summing the responses over the categories. Stress was categorized into low, intermediate, and high tertiles. BV was diagnosed by gram stain score.

In almost all domains of life stress, women with high stress were more likely to have BV than those with low stress; however, none of the differences reached statistical significance. Thirty-four percent of women with BV had high overall stress as opposed to 26% of women without BV, giving an adjusted relative risk (RR) of 1.4 (95% confidence interval, 0.95, 2.1).

In a cohort of African American women in New York City, perceived life stress showed no clear association with BV. Because of the prevalence of both the exposure and the disease, further study is warranted.