Abstract

Objective: Trichomonas vaginalis is considered to be the most prevalent cause of non-viral sexuallytransmitted infections globally and is a major healthissue in developing countries. Since this flagellateprotozoan parasite is associated with vaginitis,urethritis, cervicitis, and also pregnancy is one of thefactors affecting trichomoniasis in women. Our aim isto identify the prevalence of trichomoniasis and theassociated risk factors in pregnant women in the agegroup of 17-40 in the city of Zahedan (Southeast of Iran).Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on514 pregnant women who had referred to a midwifery clinicin Zahedan. Direct microscopic examination and Dorsetegg medium culture were used to detect T. vaginalis inpregnant women. The demographic and personal records,along with the associated risk factors were collected usinga questionnaire and then analyzed using the Frequency tocalculate the age average, chi-square test, independentt-test with SPSS software version 20.Results: The results showed that in 514 pregnantwomen, by the direct method, both the direct and culture methods and only culture method, 29(5.64),24(4.67), and 24(4.67) were reported positivesample for T. vaginalis, respectively. According tothis result, there were significant differences betweentrichomoniasis and history of STI (OR=12,6; 95CI=3,9-40,6) and previous abortion (OR = 6.840, CI:2.906-16.100) and vaginal discharge (OR= 2.9; 95CI= 1.2-7.1)and antenatal care (OR=0.2; 95CI= 0.1-0.7) in thestudied infected pregnant women (p<0.05).Conclusion: This study has raised several importantpoints that could contribute to the research on infectiousdiseases of pregnancy were also discussed. This dataproves that trichomoniasis during pregnancy should beconsidered an important health issue. Furthermore,by using parasitological diagnostic tests in pregnantwomen, the complications of trichomoniasis can beprevented for both the mother and the fetus © 2021, Turk Hijyen ve Deneysel Biyoloji Dergisi. All Rights Reserved.