(P51) Overall impact in sexually transmitted infection testing due to stay-home orders by states in the early phases of U.S. COVID-19 pandemic using administrative claims data from 2019-2020.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

16:00 – 18:00 CST

Primary Presenter(s)

CP

Chirag G. Patel, DC, MPH

Associate Service Fellow
Center of Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Co-author(s)

WA

Winston E. Abara, PhD

Center of Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
GT

Guoyu Tao, PhD

Health Scientist
CDC, Georgia, United States

Background: To understand how sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing prevalence was impacted by the status of states’ Stay-home orders (SHO) during the COVID-19 pandemic, we assessed the use of telehealth services for STI testing during the pandemic.

Methods: The MarketScan commercial claims data for 2019-2020 were used to analyze STI testing rates among men and women aged 15-44 years differentiated by the states with SHO and without SHO and by telehealth status. STI testing and telehealth visits identified using procedure codes. We further evaluated them by pandemic time interval categories as: pre-pandemic (before 3/14/2020), during SHO (3/15/2020 to 6/8/2020), and post-SHO rescission period (after 6/9/2020).

Results: We identified 7,589,186 persons aged 15-44 years (43.1% male; 56.9% female) in 2019 and 7,092,825 (43.9% male; 56.1% female) in 2020: 350,970 in states without SHO (male 45.4%; female 54.9%) and 6,741,855 in states with SHO (male 43.8%; female 56.2%), respectively. Comparing 2019 to 2020, testing percentages significantly (p< 0.0001) decreased for chlamydia (15.7% to 13.8%), gonorrhea (20.0% to 17.2%) and syphilis (9.4% to 8.3%). The proportion of patients who had telehealth services was 2.4% in 2019 and 32.5% in 2020 (p< 0.0001). During 2020, STI testing using telehealth services were higher among residents of states with SHO versus states without SHO for pre-pandemic for chlamydia 4.2% versus 1.3%, for gonorrhea 5.2% versus 1.8% and for syphilis 2.2% versus 0.8%; during SHO for chlamydia 6.9% versus 4.8%, for gonorrhea 9.1% versus 7.3% and for syphilis 4.3% versus 2.0%; and after post-SHO rescission for chlamydia 17.9% versus 12.8%, for gonorrhea 22.1% versus 17.9% and for syphilis 11.2% versus 7.2%, respectively.

Conclusions: Our preliminary results indicate routine STI testing services were disrupted during 2020 but STI testing using telehealth services increased significantly in all states, especially states with SHO. Expanding telehealth services may increase STI testing prevalence moving forward.