Determinants of Reproductive Tract Infection and cervical cytology among married women in Delhi

Background – Reproductive tract infection (RTI) represents a major public health problem in developing countries.The consequences of RTI’s are several and may be severe in some cases. Objectives –To find out the prevalence of symptoms of RTI among the married women of 21-65 years, To identify clinical and cytological abnormalities among the symptomatic women, To find out association between socio-demographic profile and risk factors with RTI symptomatic and cytology positive patients. Methods: A total of 310 married women in age group 21-65yrs residing in Madanpur Khadar area of New Delhi, India, were screened for symptom suggestive of RTI; symptomatic women went through gynecological examination and cancer cervix screening by Pap smear. Results –Overall, 34.5% of the study population had symptoms suggestive of RTI. Most of the symptomatic women (88%) had abnormal vaginal discharge. Among the symptomatic women, cytology proved that 64.6% were suffering from acute cervicitis, 3.9% from A Squamous Cell of Undetermined Significance (ASCUS) and 1.9%from Low Grade Intra epithelial Lesion (LSIL) Squamous. Conclusion – Prevalence of symptoms of RTI among women was found to be quite high(34.5%), and among them 1.9% had cervical dysplasia.