Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology Table 1: Sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics of the study population, stratiﬁed by the presence or absence of bacterial vaginosis or genital Candida albicans infection. Bacterial vaginosis† Candida albicans § n = 100 16.6 ± 1.6 Negative (n = 80) Positive (n = 20) P Negative (n = 78) Positive (n = 22) Age (years) 16.6 ± 1.6 16.6 ± 1.6 0.88 16.6 ± 1.7 16.8 ± 1.4 Ethnic group 1 Nonwhite 91 73 (91.2) 18 (90) 71 (91) 20 (90.9) White 9 7 (8.8) 2 (10) 7 (9) 2 (9.1) Conjugal status 0.54 Married/living together 80 65 (81.2) 15 (75) 16 (20.5) 18 (81.8) Single 20 15 (18.8) 5 (25) 62 (79.5) 4 (18.2) Family income (minimum wages)¶ 0.64 1 49 40 (50) 9 (45) 38 (48.7) 11 (50) 2 to 4 47 37 (46.3) 10 (50) 36 (46.2) 11 (50) ≥5 3 2 (2.5) 1 (5) 3 (3.8) 0 Education¶ 0.28 <9 years (primary/intermediate) 44 33 (41.3) 11 (55) 31 (41) 12 (54.5) ≥9 years (secondary/higher) 55 46 (57.5) 9 (45) 45 (57.7) 10 (45.5) Alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drug use 52 37 (46.3) 15 (75) 0.02∗ 42 (53.8) 10 (45.5) Age at menarche (years)‡ 12.3 ± 1.6 12.4 ± 1.5 12 ± 2.1 0.55 12.4 ± 1.7 12.2 ± 1.4 Age at ﬁrst sexual intercourse (years) 0.24 ≤14 34 25 (31.3) 9 (45) 27 (34.6) 7 (31.8) ≥15 66 55 (68.8) 11 (55) 51 (65.4) 15 (68.2) Sexual abuse 3 2 (2.5) 1 (5) 0.49 3 (3.8) 0 Contraceptive use 41 33 (41.3) 8 (40) 0.91 33 (42.3) 8 (36.4) Condom use 0.84 Never/sometimes 53 42 (52.5) 11 (55) 42 (53.8) 11 (50) Always/Almost always 47 38 (47.5) 9 (45) 36 (46.2) 11 (50) Number of sexual partners¶ 0.01∗ 1 55 49 (61.3) 6 (30) 39 (50) 16 (72.7) 2 to 4 37 26 (32.5) 11 (55) 32 (41) 5 (22.7) ≥5 7 4 (5) 3 (15) 6 (7.7) 1 (4.5) Data are presented as mean ± SD (standard deviation) for numeric variables and n (%) for categorical variables. ∗A P value ≤0.05 was considered statistically signiﬁcant. †The Nugent criteria was used for diagnosis. §Vaginal and/or endocervical. ¶Data was available for 99 subjects. One minimal wage is approximately 330 US Dollars. ‡The speciﬁc age at menarche was available for 59 subjects, being ≤16 for all participants. with bacterial vaginosis reported a higher number of sexual partners when compared to those without the disease (P = 0.01) (Table 1). Signs and symptoms associated with bacterial vagi- nosis and genital infection by Candida species are shown in Table 2. Vaginal discharge was the clinical sign most frequently observed in patients with bacterial vaginosis (45%) and Candida infection (68.2%). Genital itching, dysmenorrhea, and genital lesions were found in 10% of patients with bacterial vaginosis. Only 9.1% of patients with Candida reported genital itching. 13.3% of these patients also complained about injuries and/or genital hyperemia. The patient infected with T. vaginalis presented with a white, odorless, and bullous vaginal discharge (data not shown). 4. Discussion Bacterial vaginosis and genital Candida infection were present in almost a quarter of patients. These prevalences were similar to those reported in other studies involving adolescents in Brazil and other countries [2, 8, 17–19]. In our study, the rate of Trichomonas vaginalis infection was low, about 1%. In Brazil, the prevalence of T. vaginalis was 3.2% in women aged form 18 to 40 years followed at a primary care health service [20]. The literature unveils great variability in the prevalence rates of trichomoniasis, that may be due to heterogeneity regarding the diagnostic methods used and the group evaluated. Despite its clinical applicability, vaginal cytology has lower sensitivity and speciﬁcity rates 3 P 0.49 1 1 1 0.28 0.48 0.67 0.80 1 0.61 0.75 0.18