Racial Differences in Receipt of Chlamydia Testing among Medicaid-Insured Women in 2013
OBJECTIVE:
To
estimate the percentage of young, sexually active Medicaid-insured women who
were tested for chlamydia by age, race/ethnicity, and history of sexually
transmitted disease (STD) diagnosis.
METHODS:
We used
the medical diagnostic and procedural codes from Truven Health MarketScan
Medicaid claims data from 10 states in 2012 and 2013 to estimate the rates of
chlamydia testing in 2013 and previous STD diagnosis (diagnosed in 2012) among
Medicaid-insured women aged 15-25 years who were sexually active in 2013. We
also used a logit model to assess the association between chlamydia testing and
women's age, race/ethnicity, and previous STD diagnosis.
RESULTS:
Overall,
among approximately 261,000 Medicaid-insured women aged 15-25 years in 2013 who
were classified as sexually active, 50.2% were tested for chlamydia in 2013.
The chlamydia testing rate was 45.6% for white women and 57.5% for black women.
The chlamydia testing rate was 63.5% for women diagnosed as having an STD in
2012 and 46.8% for women not diagnosed as having an STD in 2012. The chlamydia
testing rate was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with previous STD
diagnosis, age, and race/ethnicity in our logit model.
CONCLUSIONS:
Higher
chlamydia testing rates among black women can be explained in part by higher
rates of previous STD diagnoses. Our finding that black women have the highest
chlamydia testing rates is encouraging, as improved access to STD prevention
services among racial/ethnic minorities can help to reduce racial/ethnic
disparities in STDs. However, chlamydia screening remains an underused
preventive health service for young women of all racial and ethnic groups.
- 1From the *Division of STD Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Atlanta, GA; and †Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN.
- Sex Transm Dis. 2016 Mar;43(3):147-51. doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000000405.
No comments:
Post a Comment