Urethral stricture and urethritis in men in Scotland.

OBJECTIVES To examine the incidence of urethral stricture in men in Scotland during the years 1982-1991 in relation to the changing incidence of gonococcal and non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) over the past 20 years. DESIGN Retrospective study of incidence of urethral stricture in Scotland. METHOD The number of new men in whom a diagnosis of urethral stricture was made for the years 1982-1991 was obtained using the new Scottish Record Linkage system, and the number of cases of gonorrhoea and NGU was obtained from Communicable Diseases (Scotland) Unit. Age-specific rates of urethral stricture were calculated and the Poisson regression model was used to test if there was a trend of rate with age or time change. RESULTS There was a highly significant increase in the incidence of urethral stricture with age but only a slight increase in incidence over the study period within each age group. CONCLUSION As the interaction between age and time was not significant, it is concluded that urethritis associated with sexually transmitted organisms is an uncommon cause of urethral stricture in Scotland.