Abstract
Background: Chlamydia trachomatis (chlamydia), the most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the Netherlands, can lead to severe reproductive complications. Reasons for the sustained chlamydia prevalence in young individuals, even in countries with chlamydia screening programs, might be the asymptomatic nature of chlamydia infections, and high reinfection rates after treatment. When individuals are unaware of their infection, preventive behaviour or health-care seeking behaviour mostly depends on psychological determinants, such as risk perception. Furthermore, behaviour change after a diagnosis might be vital to reduce reinfection rates. This makes the incorporation of psychological determinants and behaviour change in mathematical models estimating the impact of interventions on chlamydia transmission especially important. Therefore, quantitative real-life data to inform these models is needed. Methods: A longitudinal cohort study will be conducted to explore the link between psychological and behavioural determinants and chlamydia (re)infection among heterosexual STI clinic visitors aged 18-24 years. Participants will be recruited at the STI clinics of the public health services of Amsterdam, Hollands Noorden, Kennemerland, and Twente. Participants are enrolled for a year, and questionnaires are administrated at four time points: baseline (before an STI consultation), three-week, six-month and at one-year follow-up. To be able to link psychological and behavioural determinants to (re)infections, participants will be tested for chlamydia at enrolment and at six-month follow-up. Data from the longitudinal cohort study will be used to develop mathematical models for curable STI incorporating these determinants to be able to better estimate the impact of interventions. Discussion: This study will provide insights into the link between psychological and behavioural determinants, including short-term and long-term changes after diagnosis, and chlamydia (re)infections. Our mathematical model, informed by data from the longitudinal cohort study, will be able to estimate the impact of interventions on chlamydia prevalence, and identify and prioritise successful interventions for the future. These interventions could be implemented at STI clinics tailored to psychological and behavioural characteristics of individuals. Trial registration: Dutch Trial Register NTR-6307. Retrospectively registered 11-nov-2016.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 559 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | BMC Infectious Diseases |
| Volume | 18 |
| Early online date | 13 Nov 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the staff at the STI clinics of Amsterdam, Kennemerland,
Hollands Noorden, Twente, who are involved in the recruitment and data
collection of participants, and Marlous Ratten and Klazien Visser from
Soapoli-online, who are involved in the coordination of laboratory testing of
the home-based sampling kits at six-month follow-up. We also thank the
staff at the STI department at the National Institute for Public Health and the
Environment, especially Birgit van Benthem.
Funding
This project is funded by the Strategic Programme (SPR) of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) (project number S/113004/01/IP). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Availability of data and materials
The dataset (anonymised) generated during this study will be made available for interested parties on request.
Keywords
- Behaviour change
- Chlamydia trachomatis
- Mathematical model
- Psychological determinants
- Reinfection
- Sexual behaviour
- Sexually transmitted diseases
- STI clinic
Access to Document
- vanWees_et_al_study_protocol_BMC_vor
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