Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances May Be Correlated with Chlamydia trachomatis: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2016

Objective Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) alter immune function increasing infectious diseases risk. We examined the relationship between PFAS and chlamydia. Methods A total of 3965 nonpregnant adults ages 18-39 years from the National Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2016 cycles were included. Poisson regression with robust error variance estimated the prevalence ratio and 95% confidence intervals for the association between PFAS and chlamydia. A g computation model was used to examine PFAS mixtures and chlamydia. Results In adjusted age and sex-stratified models, an increase in PFAS mixtures by one quintile was associated with chlamydia in older males and younger females. Associations were not observed before stratification. Conclusions PFAS exposure associated with higher chlamydia prevalence, but only in stratified models suggesting biological differences by gender and age. However, small sample sizes could have affected the precision of our models.