Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Corresponding author: Yosuke Suzuki, suzukiyosuke. The cause of the syphilis resurgence in Japan is still unknown. In this study, we hypothesized that the spread of mobile dating software for use on mobile phones might have contributed to it.
We investigated possible contributing factors of the syphilis resurgence in Japan. We retrieved the number of reported cases of syphilis, human immunodeficiency virus infection, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae infection, invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae infection, general population, foreign national residents, international overnight guests, detachment-type sex trade shops, physician density, and smartphone penetration rate at the prefectural level in We also obtained the number of three major dating app users in each prefecture.
Using them, we performed association analyses. The median of syphilis incidence per , prefectural population was 2. The values of correlation coefficient between syphilis incidence and prefectural population 0. In the multiple regression analyses, the contents of an optimized model included the following two factors: for app 1 penetration rate 0.
Dating app penetration rate was significantly associated with syphilis incidence. The popularization of social media is a possible contributing factor in the syphilis resurgence in Japan. Information concerning the use of social media should be included in future studies on transmission and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. Keywords: resurgence of syphilis, sexually transmitted diseases, social media, dating app, Japan. Among sexually transmitted infections STIs , the incidence of syphilis has been steadily on the rise worldwide in the past decade, and Japan has been no exception 1.
The Japanese government has mandated that all diagnosed cases of syphilis be reported under the Notifiable Disease Surveillance law since The annual number of reported syphilis cases throughout the country ranged from to between and However, the number has indicated a steady and alarming increase since then: in , in , in , in , in , and 5.
