Improvement of Sexually Transmitted Disease Screening Among HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men Through Implementation of a Standardized Sexual Risk Assessment Tool

Abstract

Overall STD screening increases were observed after this intervention that included didactic training on the urgency of STD screening needs for HIV+ MSM, a presentation of preintervention clinic STD screening data, and the implementation of self-reported sexual risk assessment. Additional efforts are needed to determine feasible ways to accurately assess the appropriateness of STD screening and success of interventions to improve STD screening.

Syphilis incidence in men who have sex with men with human immunodeficiency virus comorbidity and the importance of integrating sexually transmitted infection prevention into HIV care

“…Scarborough and colleagues developed a self-administered sexual risk assessment questionnaire. It was tested on a cohort of 364 HIV-infected MSM receiving care from a Kaiser Permanente HIV clinic [48]. Its implementation resulted in a relative increase in gonorrhea and chlamydia screening at any site by 26.8% (p=0.01) and a relative increase in syphilis testing by 18.8% (p=0.009) [48].…”

“…It was tested on a cohort of 364 HIV-infected MSM receiving care from a Kaiser Permanente HIV clinic [48]. Its implementation resulted in a relative increase in gonorrhea and chlamydia screening at any site by 26.8% (p=0.01) and a relative increase in syphilis testing by 18.8% (p=0.009) [48]. An improvement in gonorrhea and chlamydia screening at each anatomical site was also reported, but only the increase pharyngeal testing was statistically significant [48].…”

“…Its implementation resulted in a relative increase in gonorrhea and chlamydia screening at any site by 26.8% (p=0.01) and a relative increase in syphilis testing by 18.8% (p=0.009) [48]. An improvement in gonorrhea and chlamydia screening at each anatomical site was also reported, but only the increase pharyngeal testing was statistically significant [48]. The paper risk assessment tool created for that study could be improved by developing an electronic version, which can be incorporated into the EHR system.…”

Sexually Transmitted Infection Testing of HIV-Positive Medicare and Medicaid Enrollees Falls Short of Guidelines

“…Indeed, an experiment that both educated providers about the importance of screening for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis and introduced a sexual risk assessment for patients resulted in significant increases in screening. 28 Automated structural changes, such as including a prompt in the electronic medical record to screen HIV-positive patients for STIs at regular intervals, could help to overcome a multiple barriers to routinization of the CDC's STI screening recommendations.…”

Global challenges in human immunodeficiency virus and syphilis coinfection among men who have sex with men

“…A study in Northern California found that syphilis screening among HIV-infected patients significantly improved after provider training and the implementation of an STD-risk assessment [97]. In order to reach the goals of sufficient screening, additional clinician training appears to be necessary.…”