The Prevalence of Candida Albicans Infection and Related Factors in Women Referring to Health Centers of Jiroft in 2010: A Short Report

Candida Albicans is one of the most common causes of vaginitis and an important cause of women’s visits to health centers. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of Candida Albicans infection in women of Jiroft.

This cross- sectional study was carried out in 2010 on 350 women. After taking the patient's history, swabs of patient's vaginal discharges were prepared and moved to Nickerson's medium immediately. For diagnosing Candida Albicans, germ-tube tests and macroscopic and microscopic morphology were used. In the univariate analysis, Chi-Square test, and Fisher's exact test were used for qualitative variables and independent t-test and Mann-Whitney for quantitative ones. Then the logistic regression model was used to assess the adjusted effect of the variables.

The mean age was 32.33±8.12 years and the prevalence of Candida Albicans was 29.71%±0.05. Logistic regression's model revealed independent and significant association between individual's education (p<0.001), husband's education (p=0.035) and husband's occupation (p=0.012), and method of contraception (p<0.001) and candidiasis.

In this study, the prevalence of vaginal candidiasis based on positive culture of Candida, was high and higher in the group of women with certain risk factors. Knowing these risk factors may be helpful in the diagnosis and treatment of patients.