Trends in sexually transmitted infections in the Netherlands, combining surveillance data from general practices and sexually transmitted infection centers

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Femke DH Koedijk¹  Ingrid VF van den Broek¹  Marianne AB van der Sande¹  Jan EAM van Bergen²  Robert A Verheij³  Christel E van Dijk³ 

[1] Centre for Infectious Disease Control, RIVM National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands;Centre for Infectious Disease Control, RIVM National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands;STI AIDS Netherlands, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;NIVEL Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands;

关键词: Syphilis;    Sexually Transmit Infection;    Genital Wart;    Gonorrhea;    Trichomoniasis;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2296-11-39

 received in 2010-02-12, accepted in 2010-05-20,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSexually transmitted infections (STI) care in the Netherlands is primarily provided by general practitioners (GPs) and specialized STI centers. STI surveillance is based on data from STI centers, which show increasing numbers of clients. Data from a GP morbidity surveillance network were used to investigate the distribution in the provision of STI care and the usefulness of GP data in surveillance.MethodsData on STI-related episodes and STI diagnoses based on ICPC codes and, for chlamydia, prescriptions, were obtained from GP electronic medical records (EMRs) of the GP network and compared to data from STI centers from 2002 to 2007. Incidence rates were estimated for the total population in the Netherlands.ResultsThe incidence of STI-consultations and -diagnoses increased substantially in recent years, both at GPs and STI centers. The increase in consultations was larger than the increase in diagnoses; Chlamydia incidence rose especially at STI centers. GPs were responsible for 70% of STI-related episodes and 80-85% of STI diagnoses. STI centers attract relatively younger and more often male STI-patients than GPs. Symptomatic STIs like Herpes genitalis and genital warts were more frequently diagnosed at GPs and chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis at STI centers.ConclusionsGPs fulfill an important role in STI care, complementary to STI centers. Case definitions of STI could be improved, particularly by including laboratory results in EMRs. The contribution of primary care is often overlooked in STI health care. Including estimates from GP EMRs can improve the surveillance of STIs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Broek et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.