What is stopping people who have had chlamydia get tested again?

🧪 What was the study about?

National guidelines recommend testing people who have had chlamydia around three months after successful treatment to check that they have not become infected again. This is because previously having chlamydia means that you are more likely to become infected again, often due to sexual partners having chlamydia or treatment not working. However, in the UK only a small number of people get tested again, and being infected with chlamydia multiple times is common. We want to look at why this is.

❓ Why is this important?

It is important to find out why people who have had chlamydia are not getting tested again, to reduce the number of people who are infected with chlamydia multiple times and the spread of chlamydia. People who have had chlamydia multiple times are more likely to have additional health problems because of their chlamydia infection, for example infertility or pregnancy problems in women.  

🔍 What did we do?

We interviewed 22 people aged 16-24 who had been previously diagnosed with chlamydia, recruited from sexual health services in either London, the South West, or the North West of England. We asked what was stopping them from being re-tested for chlamydia and what would encourage people to re-test for chlamydia.

📊 Key findings

Barriers to re-testing included not knowing what re-testing means or not being aware of recommendations to re-test. What would encourage people to re-test included discussing re-testing when the person is first diagnosed with chlamydia, explaining why re-testing is important, reminders from providers of testing services, and self-sampling kits.

💡 What do these findings mean?

These findings will be used to help develop strategies to increase chlamydia re-testing, to help reduce multiple infections of chlamydia and ensure that people who are infected are treated.