OBJECTIVES:

To describe the prevalence and factors associated with endocervical infection by Chlamydia trachomatis in students from a university in the capital and three campuses in inland towns of Pará State, Amazon, Brazil.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A cross-sectional study with women aged 18 years or older who underwent cervical cancer prevention from September 2010 to October 2014. DNA from cervicovaginal secretion was extracted using the phenol-chloroform method and subjected to the amplification of the human β-globin and ompA genes of C. trachomatis by polymerase chain reaction. Mann-Whitney tests, proportion estimation, and odds ratio were used for statistical analysis. The p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant for a confidence interval (CI) of 95%.

RESULTS:

The prevalence of C. trachomatis was 11.9% [54/454 (95% CI 8.9-14.9)]. Infection was identified in 10.4% [36/345 (95% CI 7.2-13.7)] of the students in the Capital and in 16.5% [18/109 (95% CI 10.3-24.6) of students from the campuses in the inland towns (p = 0.12), with 7.1% (2/28) in the Town 1, 22.2% (6/27) in the Town 2, and 18.5% (10/54) in the Town 3. No association between the investigated variables and the endocervical infection by C. trachomatis was observed.

CONCLUSION:

The prevalence of C. trachomatis infection among those university students was similar to the average found in Brazil and was not associated with the sociodemographic and behavioral conditions of the university students investigated.

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