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Medical AI Inquiry: You were designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.
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A case-control study looking to study the relationship between infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and having multiple sexual partners was conducted in the United States. A total of 100 women with newly diagnosed chlamydial infection visiting an outpatient clinic for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were compared with 100 women from the same clinic who were found to be free of chlamydia and other STDs. The women diagnosed with this infection were informed that the potential serious consequences of the disease could be prevented only by locating and treating their sexual partners. Both groups of women were queried about the number of sexual partners they had had during the preceding 3 months. The group of women with chlamydia reported an average of 4 times as many sexual partners compared with the group of women without chlamydia; the researchers, therefore, concluded that women with chlamydia visiting the clinic had significantly more sexual partners compared with women who visited the same clinic but were not diagnosed with chlamydia. What type of systematic error could have influenced the results of this study?
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Reporting bias