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Observational studies indicate that male circumcision is associated with reduced risk of ulcerative sexually transmitted infections (STIs), 1 and randomised controlled trials conducted in sub-Saharan Africa have shown that it protects against female to male transmission of HIV. 2 - 4 In industrialised countries, male circumcision is widely practiced for "hygienic reasons" in Anglo-Saxon cultures, where the proportion of circumcised men ranges from 16% in the UK to 59% in Australia and 77% in the USA. 5 - 7 In contrast, in European countries (except the UK), the prevalence of male circumcision is generally expected to be low (eg, in Denmark, 1.6% of boys 0-14 years old in 1996 8 ), although population-based data are lacking in most countries.
We used data from the Slovenian 2000 national Sexual Lyfestyles, Attitudes and Health Survey to estimate the prevalence of male circumcision and explore its association with demographic characteristics and self-reported STI diagnosis.
METHODS
Details of methods used are published elsewhere. 9 In brief, data were collected over 1999-2001 from a national probability sample of the general population aged 18-49 years at respondents' homes by a combination of face-to-face interviews and anonymous self-administration of questionnaires. The data were weighted to be representative of the Slovenian population and analysed using Stata V.7.0 to account for the complex survey design (stratification, clustered sampling and weighting).
RESULTS
A total of 849 men were interviewed. The survey response rate was 63.3%. Of the respondents, 831 (unweighted count) reported their circumcision status. Overall, 4.5% (95% CI 3.2 to 6.5) Slovenian male citizens reported being circumcised. The prevalence of circumcision varied widely across religious groups, with 92.4% (95% CI 59.8 to 99.0) of Muslims being circumcised, 1.7% (95% CI 0.9 to 3.1) of Roman Catholics, 0% of other religious affiliations (Evangelic, Serbian Orthodox, other), and 7.1% (95% CI 4.4 to 11.2) of those with no religious affiliation (p<0.001). Men of non-Slovenian origin were more often circumcised (29.7%; 95% CI 17.9 to 45.0) than men...