Pooled mean estimates for herpes simplex virus type 1 seroprevalence in Europe
| Population | Outcome measure | Sample | HSV-1 seroprevalence | Pooled mean HSV-1 seroprevalence | Heterogeneity measures | |||
| Total N | Total N | Range | Median | Mean (95% CI) | Q* (p value) | I²† (%) (95% CI) | Prediction interval‡ (%) | |
| Healthy general populations | ||||||||
| Children | 101 | 23 948 | 0.0–82.0 | 31.0 | 32.4 (29.2 to 35.6) | 2689.7 (p<0.001) | 96.3 (95.9 to 96.7) | 7.0–65.3 |
| Adults | 402 | 105 523 | 20.0–100 | 73.6 | 73.7 (71.9 to 75.4) | 13 302.3 (p<0.001) | 97.5 (97.4 to 97.7) | 36.0–98.1 |
| Age mixed | 13 | 5985 | 30.4–68.6 | 53.7 | 54.3 (47.4 to 61.0) | 301.1 (p<0.001) | 96.0 (94.5 to 97.1) | 27.4–79.9 |
| All healthy general populations | 516 | 135 456 | 0.0–100 | 68.0 | 65.5 (63.3 to 67.6) | 35 415.7 (p<0.001) | 98.5 (98.5 to 98.6) | 17.8–98.9 |
| Clinical populations | ||||||||
| Clinical children | 3 | 149 | 31.0–52.0 | 36.0 | 37.8 (28.3 to 47.8) | 2.5 (p=0.281) | 21.3 (0.0 to 91.8) | 0.0–100 |
| Clinical adults | 59 | 11 071 | 0.0–100 | 73.3 | 73.8 (68.9 to 78.5) | 1770.0 (p<0.001) | 96.7 (96.2 to 97.1) | 33.3–99.0 |
| All clinical populations | 62 | 11 071 | 0.0–100 | 72.5 | 72.4 (67.4 to 77.2) | 1847.3 (p<0.001) | 96.7 (96.2 to 97.1) | 31.3–98.8 |
| Other populations | ||||||||
| HIV positive patients | 19 | 2493 | 76.0–97.0 | 90.1 | 89.0 (86.3 to 91.5) | 65.2 (p<0.001) | 72.4 (56.4 to 82.6) | 77.2–97.1 |
| Female sex workers | 6 | 1062 | 60.9–99.0 | 78.3 | 83.2 (66.9 to 94.8) | 171.7 (p<0.001) | 97.1 (95.4 to 98.1) | 18.5–100 |
| Men who have sex with men | 10 | 6074 | 52.1–91.0 | 68.0 | 67.0 (59.9 to 73.8) | 286.9 (p<0.001) | 96.9 (95.6 to 97.8) | 39.3–89.5 |
| Prisoners | 9 | 357 | 67.0–86.4 | 77.0 | 80.4 (75.8 to 84.6) | 5.7 (p=0.680) | 0.0 (0.0 to 50.6) | 74.9–84.4 |
| European subregion/country | ||||||||
| Northern Europe | 161 | 47 202 | 13.0–100 | 67.2 | 57.7 (54.4 to 60.9) | 7721.3 (p<0.001) | 97.9 (97.8 to 98.1) | 19.3–91.4 |
| Eastern Europe | 64 | 12 260 | 0.0–100 | 85.5 | 78.7 (74.1 to 83.0) | 2153.3 (p<0.001) | 97.1 (96.7 to 97.4) | 37.8–100 |
| Southern Europe | 77 | 16 063 | 3.6–100 | 81.4 | 77.2 (71.7 to 82.3) | 4677.4 (p<0.001) | 98.4 (98.2 to 98.5) | 24.8–100 |
| Western Europe | 264 | 68 556 | 0.0–95.7 | 67.9 | 66.1 (63.1 to 69.0) | 17 258.0 (p<0.001) | 98.5 (98.4 to 98.5) | 18.8–98.9 |
| Israel | 35 | 7060 | 22.2–94.9 | 67.9 | 64.8 (58.8 to 70.7) | 910.9 (p<0.001) | 96.3 (95.5 to 96.9) | 28.3–93.6 |
| Turkey | 17 | 3076 | 30.4–99.0 | 92.3 | 87.9 (79.8 to 94.2) | 557.2 (p<0.001) | 97.1 (96.3 to 97.8) | 43.4–100 |
| Mixed subregions | 4 | 2295 | 55.3–76.7 | 71.7 | 68.9 (56.9 to 79.8) | 101.7 (p<0.001) | 97.0 (94.8 to 98.3) | 13.5–100 |
| Sex | ||||||||
| Women | 258 | 62 162 | 2.0–100 | 72.1 | 69.5 (66.5 to 72.5) | 16 531.4 (p<0.001) | 98.4 (98.4 to 98.5) | 20.8–99.8 |
| Men | 194 | 49 887 | 7.5–100 | 65.5 | 63.3 (59.7 to 66.7) | 12 372.9 (p<0.001) | 98.4 (98.3 to 98.5) | 16.8–97.9 |
| Mixed sexes | 170 | 44 463 | 0.0–100 | 70.0 | 68.8 (65.3 to 72.2) | 9860.3 (p<0.001) | 98.3 (98.2 to 98.4) | 23.0–99.1 |
| Age group (years) | ||||||||
| <20 | 147 | 32 492 | 0.0–100 | 36.4 | 39.3 (35.9 to 42.7) | 5530.3 (p<0.001) | 97.4 (97.1 to 97.6) | 6.8–78.5 |
| 20–30 | 73 | 13 156 | 32.0–100 | 66.7 | 66.7 (62.0 to 71.1) | 2204.1 (p<0.001) | 96.7 (96.3 to 97.1) | 26.8–96.1 |
| 30–40 | 60 | 9594 | 40.0–96.9 | 73.0 | 72.9 (69.3 to 76.3) | 854.6 (p<0.001) | 93.1 (91.8 to 94.2) | 44.1–94.0 |
| 40–50 | 25 | 5188 | 49.0–96.6 | 76.0 | 74.5 (68.5 to 80.0) | 487.7 (p<0.001) | 95.1 (93.7 to 96.1) | 42.3–96.4 |
| >50 | 47 | 16 363 | 57.1–100 | 84.0 | 82.9 (78.8 to 86.6) | 1546.3 (p<0.001) | 97.0 (96.5 to 97.4) | 52.2–99.6 |
| Mixed | 270 | 79 719 | 0.0–100 | 78.2 | 77.1 (75.1 to 79.1) | 11 355.6 (p<0.001) | 97.6 (97.5 to 97.8) | 41.1–98.9 |
| Year or publication range | ||||||||
| <2000 | 127 | 23 076 | 0.0–100 | 71.6 | 70.0 (66.0 to 73.9) | 4826.5 (p<0.001) | 97.4 (97.2 to 97.6) | 25.2–99.2 |
| 2000–2010 | 361 | 86 175 | 6.0–100 | 72.0 | 69.3 (67.0 to 71.5) | 1891.5 (p<0.001) | 97.1 (98.0 to 98.2) | 24.7–98.8 |
| >2010 | 134 | 47 261 | 0.0–100 | 62.7 | 59.7 (55.1 to 64.3) | 13 668.2 (p<0.001) | 99.0 (99.0 to 99.1) | 11.0–98.2 |
| Age bracket | ||||||||
| All children | 104 | 24 097 | 0.0–82.0 | 31.5 | 32.5 (29.4 to 35.7) | 2698.1 (p<0.001) | 96.2 (95.7 to 96.6) | 7.1–65.4 |
| All adults | 505 | 126 430 | 0.0–100 | 76.0 | 74.4 (72.8 to 76.0) | 19 321.3 (p<0.001) | 97.4 (97.3 to 97.5) | 37.1–98.3 |
| All age mixed | 13 | 5985 | 30.4–68.6 | 53.7 | 54.3 (47.4 to 61.0) | 301.1 (p<0.001) | 96.0 (94.5 to 97.1) | 27.4–79.9 |
| All studies | 622 | 156 512 | 0.0–100 | 70.0 | 67.4 (65.5 to 69.3) | 39 384.9 (p<0.001) | 98.4 (98.4 to 98.5) | 20.2–99.1 |
*The Cochran’s Q statistic is a measure assessing the existence of heterogeneity in pooled outcome measures (here, HSV-1 seroprevalence).
†I2 is a measure assessing the magnitude of between study variation that is due to true differences in HSV-1 seroprevalence across studies rather than sampling variation.
‡Prediction interval is a measure quantifying the 95% interval of the distribution of true HSV-1 seroprevalence around the estimated pooled mean.
HSV-1, herpes simplex virus type 1.