Table 2

Frequency of microbiology tests by sex in Oxfordshire primary care practices between 2008 and 2018

Test group	Male				Female
Test group	N tests	%	N patients	%*	N tests	%	N patients	%*
All tests	343 020	100	136 538	100	1 253 732	100	257 367	100
Culture±microscopy
Urine	171 656	50.0	75 460	55.3	501 956	40.0	171 896	66.8
Genital	648	0.19	600	0.44	108 213	8.63	68 455	26.6
Surface swab	28 966	8.44	20 511	15.0	39 322	3.14	28 343	11.0
Faecal	30 594	8.92	25 014	18.3	37 646	3.00	30 018	11.7
Antenatal urine	–	–	–	–	57 415	–	37 915	–
Dermatophyte	11 278	3.29	9862	7.22	12 815	1.02	11 167	4.34
Pus	2566	0.75	2234	1.64	2367	0.19	2098	0.82
Respiratory tract	1337	0.39	751	0.55	1874	0.15	920	0.36
Tests targeting specific pathogens
Hepatitis B	17 952	5.23	15 033	11.0	98 414	7.85	65 625	25.5
HIV	9418	2.75	7781	5.70	90 018	7.18	59 686	23.2
Treponema pallidum (syphilis)	1865	0.54	1739	1.27	82 821	6.61	56 263	21.9
Chlamydia	4655	1.36	4342	3.18	72 056	5.75	51 340	20.0
Rubella	353	0.10	342	0.25	76 203	6.08	51 363	20.0
Helicobacter pylori	21 463	6.26	19 354	14.2	29 674	2.37	26 102	10.1
Hepatitis C	16 428	4.79	13 489	9.88	14 482	1.16	11 979	4.65
Cryptosporidium/Giardia	11 571	3.37	9751	7.14	10 851	0.87	9325	3.62
Clostridioides difficile	5033	1.47	4117	3.02	7942	0.63	6372	2.48
Gastrointestinal bacterial panel†	4486	1.31	4146	3.04	5529	0.44	5056	1.96
Epstein-Barr virus	2743	0.80	2639	1.93	4134	0.33	3931	1.53

*Note these percentages may not add to the total as patients could have more than a single test of a different type during the study period.
†An enteric pathogen panel that tests for Shigella spp, Salmonella spp, Campylobacter spp and shiga toxin genes (for the detection of shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli such as O157).