{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T03:24:36Z","timestamp":1776396276272,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,7]],"date-time":"2025-05-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1746576000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Shaoxing Health Science and Technology project","award":["2022KY041"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2022KY041"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p><jats:italic>Chlamydia trachomatis<\/jats:italic> (CT) infection is one of the most prevalent genital tract infections which has been reported to have adverse effects on reproductive health. However, doctors will only test for CT infection if there are associated symptoms. This study aimed to compare outcomes before and after implementing a CT screening protocol to evaluate whether to encourage more routinized CT screening.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A hospital-based survey was conducted at Shaoxing Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital. The study was divided into two time periods, T1 (July 2021\u2013June 2022, before screening protocol) and T2 (July 2022<jats:bold>\u2013<\/jats:bold>June 2023, after screening protocol). The study included females aged over 16 years who agreed to CT testing at four clinics, including obstetrics, infertility, termination of pregnancy and gynecology. The nucleic acid amplification results were utilized to ascertain the presence of chlamydia infection in cervical secretions.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>After active promotion of CT screening, 15,005 females were tested, with an average age of 32.2 years (SD\u2009=\u20098.3), which were more than double the previous number and significantly younger (<jats:italic>P\u2009<\/jats:italic>&lt;\u20090.05). Significant differences in the number of people CT screened were observed in the obstetrics (2.5%\u201366.5%, <jats:italic>P\u2009<\/jats:italic>&lt;\u20090.05) and termination of pregnancy (7.5%\u201345.3%, <jats:italic>P\u2009<\/jats:italic>&lt;\u20090.05) clinics. The positive rates of CT in T1 and T2 were 6.8% (491\/7230) and 5.2% (774\/15005), respectively. The implementing chlamydia screening identified an additional 184 (11\u2013195) infected pregnant women in obstetrics clinics (a similar number of outpatient visits). The age group with the highest proportion was 26\u201330 years (27.6%), followed by 21\u201325 years (21.4%) and 31\u201335 years (21.1%).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Active screening significantly improves the detection of chlamydia in\u00a0women's\u00a0health clinics. Pregnant individuals and those seeking pregnancy termination were previously overlooked in CT screening efforts but required increased attention.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0321492","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,7]],"date-time":"2025-05-07T17:54:47Z","timestamp":1746640487000},"page":"e0321492","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Active screening significantly improves detection of chlamydia in women\u2019s health clinics in Shaoxing, China"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7266-061X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jieqiong","family":"Guan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Feng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lingying","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jinlong","family":"Ding","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0321492.ref001","author":"World Health Organization","year":"2022"},{"issue":"12","key":"pone.0321492.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e0143304","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0143304","article-title":"Global Estimates of the Prevalence and Incidence of Four 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