Creating Performance Indicators to Guide Activities to Reduce Gonorrhea (GC) Health Disparities in Target Communities: Region IV Infertility Prevention Project (IPP) Areas (AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN)

Background: In 2009, after developing action plans to reduce GC health disparities, the Region IV IPP developed performance indicators to evaluate impact of GC screening activities in target communities (TC).

Objectives: To consider the role of performance indicators in identifying opportunities for and impact of activities to reduce GC health disparities.

Methods: Indicator data was collected for CY2006-2009 from GC Case Report and IPP Prevalence Monitoring data systems for 7 states in Region IV. Data for females from 3 states were analyzed comparing trends from CY2008-2009 in # of GC tests performed and cases identified from IPP Prevalence Monitoring (PM) Data in TC, and # of GC cases reported from STD Case Report Data at state and TC levels. Data were stratified by gender and geographic region.

Results: State A Case Report Data revealed decreasing trends in reported GC cases at state and TC levels (9% and 4% respectively) and 16% increase in GC cases in TC from PM data. State B Case Report Data revealed decreasing trends in reported GC cases at state and TC levels (23% and 20% respectively) and 0% decrease in GC cases in TC from PM data. State C Case Report Data showed decreases in reported GC cases from both case report and IPP PM data. IPP sites reporting data remained stable in States A/B and increased in State C. Number of GC tests conducted remained stable in States A/B and increased in State C.

Conclusions: GC indicators, derived by combining two widely available data sets, were useful in describing state-wide vs. TC trends in GC cases and can inform future activities to decrease GC disparities.

Implications for Programs, Policy, and Research: Widely available data sources can be used to simply estimate the impact of program activities and to inform improvement efforts in low resource areas.