Objective: To determine SBHCs’ opportunities of detecting STDs through their encounter with adolescents whose health care utilization is traditionally poor.
Methods: In a school with an on-site SBHC, data were available on students’ utilization of the SBHC for 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1998-99, and students’ participation in a parallel school-based chlamydia and gonorrhea (SBSTD) screening using urine LCR. Students grades 9-12 routinely visiting the SBHC were compared with students tested for STD through the SBSTD screening.
Results:
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1995-96 M (n=379) F (n=409) |
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1996-97 M (n=397) F (n=450) |
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1998-99 M (n=365) F (n=394) |
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Males vs. females rates of STD were 7.3% and 13.6% in 1995-96 (p=0.03), 5.2% and 11.2% in 1996-97 (p=0.02), and 4.8% and 9.1% in 1998-99 (p=0.05).
Conclusions: Overall, the SBHC would have screened significantly more females if a urine sample was purposefully collected from each student who routinely visited the center between 1995 and 1999. With higher STD rates among females, more cases would probably have been detected through such integrated SBHC STD screening than actually were through the SBSTD screening. This demonstrates that opportunities for identifying the two most common bacterial STDs among adolescents in the US are still being missed in spite of the current availability of noninvasive, highly sensitive diagnostic tools for disease detection.
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to assess the extent to which opportunities for early chlamydia and gonorrhea detection and treatment are being missed in spite of the availability of noninvasive diagnostic tests and the potential for a high response from adolescent high school students
Keywords: Adolescents, STD
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.