(P71) LOCATION OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTION TESTING USING ADMINISTRATIVE CLAIMS DATA

Background:

Background: Determining where people receive care for sexually transmitted infections (STI) is an important aspect of optimizing STI service delivery. Therefore, our analyses sought to identify where chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis testing was conducted using a large administrative claims dataset from the United States (US).

Methods:

Methods: Medical visits with STI testing among male and female patients who were ≥15 years old identified using MarketScan commercial claims data from 2022. We identified syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia tests using Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes and stratified these visits by age and sex of the patient as well as region of the country where the visit took place. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to further determine statistical differences by sex in testing rates.

Results:

Results: A total of 12,629,299 medical visits were identified, including STI testing visits of 1,169,371 for chlamydia (CT), 1,160,474 for gonorrhea (GC), and 461,592 for syphilis (TP). The South had higher percentages of visits for chlamydia (44.6%,), gonorrhea (44.7%) and syphilis (49.7%) testing compared to other regions of the US. Independent physician and hospital-based offices comprised the largest proportion of testing locations. Independent physician office settings accounted for 24.1%, 24.2%, and 23.8% and hospital-based office settings accounted were 19.35% 19.28% 13.87% of CT, GC, and TP testing visits, respectively. After controlling for age and region of country, women had nearly three times the odds of receiving STI testing (OR:2.79, CI:2.78-2.80) than men.

Conclusion:

Conclusions: As noted in previously published work, our analyses found that the proportion of visits for STI testing was greatest in physician and hospital-based office settings indicating that these settings are important locations for targeting important communications on STI testing recommendations. Additionally, women comprise the largest proportion of these visits. Maintaining access to these health services locations is important for ensuring proper care for STIs.