Growing literature suggests that black women are more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have clinical and microbiologic evidence of bacterial vaginosis (В V), a condition in which the normally protective hydrogen peroxide producing (H₂0₂+)  lactobacilli are over­ grown by disease-promoting endogenous anaerobic and facultative aerobic bacteria, including Gardnerella vaginalis, Mycoplasma hominis, Mobiluncus species, and anaerobic Gram negative rods. Reported rates of BV range from 9% to 57% among reproductive age women with the variability explained by sexual patterns, В V definition, and race. The association between black race and BV has been demonstrated among both pregnant and non-pregnant women in the US and non-pregnant women in the UK. Caution in the interpretation of this link is warranted, however, since a number of sociode-mographic and lifestyle factors increase the risk of BV and are more common among black women. These sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, which include douching, low income and low educational attainment, number of sexual partners, a history of sexually transmitted infection including PID, previous pregnancies, and lack of hormonal contraceptive use, may produce the appearance of a relationship between race and BV when, indeed, such a relationship does not, in truth, exist. Since race is a social construct, it is rational to suggest that relevant lifestyle, sociodemographics and healthcare factors could explain racial differences in the occurrence of В V.

A handful of previous reports have assessed whether race is a predictor for BV, independent of other risk factors, with divergent results. One cross-sectional study and a prospective cohort study, both ascertaining women from STI clinics, did not find race to be an independent predictor, whereas three cross-sectional studies, drawing on more diverse populations, two conducted in pregnant women and one in nonpregnant women, did find race to predict BV status. discount drugs canda

We report here, among black and non-Hispanic white women participating in the baseline examination of the GYN Infections Follow-Through (GIFT) Study, the associations between known risk and protective factors for BV. We then assess the degree to which known risk fac tors for BV might explain racial differences in vaginal microecology.