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P129 Women Who Use the “I Want the Kit” Internet Site to Test for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea: Does Where They Live Tell Us Who They Are?

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Hyatt Exhibit Hall
Ravikiran Muvva, MPH, MPA, MBBS, Bureau of HIV/STD Prevention, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore, MD, Angeli bueno, BA, Department of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, Yu-Hsiang Hsieh, PhD, Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, Terry Hogan, BA, MPH, Bayview Medical Campus, Johns Hopkins Univerisity, Baltimore, MD and Charlotte Gaydos, DrPH, School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, STD Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Background:Women in Baltimore City, Maryland have been able to order home collection kits via internet recruitment, iwantthekit.org since 2004.

Objectives:To compare the socio-demographic characteristics of census block groups (CBGs) where women have utilized iwantthekit for STI testing to those of CBGs where women have not.

Methods:Addresses were collected for each kit request between 2004 -2009, and were geocoded into 710 CBGs. CBGs from which kits were ordered (kit requesting CBGs) were compared to CBGs who did not order kits (non-kit requesting CBGs).The population characteristics of the two groups were compared using Chi Square. The means of percent home ownership and percent below poverty among CBGs were analyzed using t-test.

Results:From 2004 to 2009, there were 545 kit requesting CBGs, 159 non-kit requesting CBGs and 6 CBGs without any population. Kit requesting CBGs had a higher mean for percent of population below poverty (24.7% v. 20.1%) and a lower mean for percent of home-ownership (51.3% v. 58.9%),(p<0.01). 70.1% of kit requesting CBGs had a higher proportion of black female population (out of the total female population) when compared to 39.6% of  non-kit requesting CBGs,(p<0.001). Furthermore, 58.4% of kit requesting CBGs had chlamydia rates above the Baltimore City morbidity rate for 2006 (989.1 per 100,000) compared to 48.4% of non-kit requesting CBGs (p<0.05). However, differences in gonorrhea rates between the two CBG categories were not significant.

Conclusions:Kit requesting CBGs were more likely to have a population below poverty, and have lower rates of home ownership.  Kit requesting CBGs also had a higher percent of black female population and had higher chlamydia rates.

Implications for Programs, Policy, and Research:STD programs may be able to utilize the Internet testing data to identify and target services for high morbidity populations. Internet testing may be a valuable tool for chlamydia testing in high morbidity areas.

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