Introduction of a sexual health practice nurse is associated with increased STI testing of men who have sex with men in primary care

BMC Infectious Diseases

Marcus Y Chen²  Margaret E Hellard⁴  Norman Roth¹  Louise Owen³  Rosey Cummings⁵  Carol El-Hayek⁴  Christopher K Fairley²  Lenka A Vodstrcil²  Anthony F Snow⁵ 

[1] Prahran Market Clinic, Prahran, Victoria, Australia;School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia;Centre Clinic, Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia;Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia;Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health, Carlton, Victoria, Australia

关键词: Screening;    Sexually transmitted infections;    HIV;    Men who have sex with men;    Nursing;    Primary health care;   

Others  :  1147275
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2334-13-298

 received in 2012-12-14, accepted in 2013-06-20,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

The study objective was to investigate the effect of the introduction of a sexual health practice nurse on HIV and STI testing in a general practice that specialized in gay men’s health.

Methods

This observational study compared the proportion of gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM) tested for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia (urethral and anal) and gonorrhoea (anal), or all of the above (defined as a complete set of tests at a single visit), two years before and one year after the nurse was introduced (Clinic A). Clinic B, a general practice which also specialized in gay men’s health, but with no sexual health nurse, was used as a control.

Results

In Clinic A, amongst HIV negative MSM the proportion of men who had a complete set of HIV and STI tests increased from 41% to 47% (p < 0.01) after the nurse was introduced. Amongst HIV positive MSM attending clinic A there was an increase in the proportion of men who had a complete set of tests after the nurse was introduced from 27% to 43% (p < 0.001). In Clinic B there was no significant increase in testing in the proportion of either HIV negative or HIV positive men who had a complete set of tests over the same time periods.

Conclusions

The introduction of the sexual health practice nurse resulted in significant increases in episodes of complete STI testing among MSM. The effect was most pronounced among HIV positive MSM.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Snow et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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