Use your browser's BACK button to return to your page of origin.
Indirect estimation of Chlamydia screening coverage using public health surveillance data.
American Journal of Epidemiology 2004;160(1):91-96.
Levine WC, Dicker LW, Devine O, Mosure DJ.
Abstract
Although routine screening of all sexually active adolescent females for Chlamydia
trachomatis infection is recommended at least annually in the United States,
no national or state-specific population-based estimates of chlamydia screening
coverage are known to exist. Conclusions regarding screening coverage have
often been based on surveys of health care provider or facility screening
practices, but such surveys do not consider persons who do not seek care
at these facilities or who seek care at more than one facility. The authors
developed a method to estimate the proportion of sexually active females
aged 15-19 years screened for chlamydia in 45 states and the District of
Columbia by using national data on chlamydia positivity, estimates of sexual
activity from the National Survey of Family Growth, and chlamydial infections
reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because of uncertainty
regarding these values and related assumptions, credibility intervals were
calculated by using a Monte Carlo model. When this model was used, the median
state-specific proportion of sexually active females aged 15-19 years screened
in 2000 was 60% (90% credibility interval: 55, 66). These results and this
method should be evaluated for their utility in guiding implementation of
national and state chlamydia control programs. Copyright 2004 Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health