Mass gatherings and large sporting events, such as the
Olympics, may potentially pose a risk of increased sexually transmitted
infection (STI) transmission and increase burden on local STI services. The
objectives of this analysis were to assess whether the STI profile of Olympic
visitors differed from that of the local STI clinic population and to
investigate what impact these visitors had on local STI services.
Self-administered questionnaires (completed by 29,292
patients) were used to determine the visitor status of patients attending 20
STI clinics, between July 20, 2012, and September 16, 2012, in the host cities,
London and Weymouth. Using routine surveillance data from the Genitourinary
Medicine Clinic Activity Dataset version 2, Olympic visitors were compared with
usual attendees (local residents and non-Olympic visitors) in terms of their
demographic characteristics, services utilized, and STIs diagnosed using
univariate and multivariate methods.
Compared with usual attendees, Olympic visitors were more
likely to be heterosexual males (56.0% vs. 34.9%, P = 0.001), aged between 15
and 24 years of age (47.1% vs. 34.0%, P = 0.001), of white ethnicity (81.9% vs.
66.4%, P = 0.001), and born in Australasia, Asia, North America, or South
America (18.8% vs. 12.0%, P = 0.006). Olympic visitors constituted 1% of new
clinic attendances and were less likely to be diagnosed as having a new STI
(adjusted odds ratio, 0.69; 95% confidence interval, 0.48-0.98; P = 0.040).
In this first multisite study to examine the effect of
Olympic visitors on local sexual health services, the 2012 Olympic Games was
found to have minimal impact. This suggests that a "business as
usual" approach would have been sufficient.
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By:
- 1From the *HIV/STI Department and †Field Epidemiology Services, Public Health England, London, UK; ‡University College London, London, UK; §Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK; ¶Public Health England, Kent, Surrey, UK; ∥Sussex PHE Centre, Horsham, UK; **Department of Sexual Health and HIV, Homerton University Hospital, London, UK; ††Infection and Immunity Department, Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK; and ‡‡Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Central Middlesex Hospital, London, UK.
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