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. 2023 Oct 1;50(10):692-698.
doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001837. Epub 2023 May 28.

Trends in Patient's Use of Sexual Health Services During COVID-19 in a Network of STD Clinics, STD Surveillance Network, 2019 to 2021

Eloisa Llata  1 , Christina Schumacher  2 , Irina Grigorov  3 , Brandi Danforth  4 , Preeti Pathela  5 , Lenore Asbel  6 , Trang Quyen Nguyen  7 , Anna Berzkalns  8 , Kristen M Kreisel  1
Affiliations

Trends in Patient's Use of Sexual Health Services During COVID-19 in a Network of STD Clinics, STD Surveillance Network, 2019 to 2021

Eloisa Llata et al. Sex Transm Dis. .

Abstract

Background: The initial years of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted sexual health care clinic's services. We describe use patterns by patient characteristics, and the use of telehealth (TH) services among a network of sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics.

Methods: Data were collected using a survey to assess the impact of COVID-19 from March to December 2020 among 7 jurisdictions who contribute STD visit-level data as part of the STD Surveillance Network. As a complement to the survey, retrospective data from January 2019 to December 2021 from these 7 STD clinics in the same 7 jurisdictions were examined for monthly utilization trends by overall visits, patient characteristics, and TH visits.

Results: Survey results indicated 7 clinics prioritized patients for in-person visits and 4 jurisdictions reported urgent care centers were the most common referral location. In April 2020 (relative to April 2019) clinic visits and unique patients decreased by 68.0% and 75.8%, respectively. Telehealth were documented in 4 clinics, beginning in March 2020, peaking in December 2020, and tapering until December 2021. We observed the number of clinic visits (-12.2%) and unique patients presenting for care (-27.2%) in December 2021 had yet to return to levels to that seen in December 2019.

Conclusions: Sexually transmitted disease clinics showed fragility and resiliency in their adjustment to the pandemic; allowing for the continuation of services. Overall patient census has been slow to return to prepandemic levels, and many patients may still not be seeking timely care. This could result in missed opportunities to screen and treat STIs and increasing the possibility of harmful sequelae.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Percent change in the proportion of visits* and unique patients attending 7 STD clinics participating in the STD Surveillance Network** in 2020–2021 compared to 2019 by month *Includes both in-person and telehealth visits **Includes STD clinics in Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Multnomah County, Oregon; Philadelphia, Philadelphia; New York City, New York; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Percent change in unique MSM, MSW and women attending 7 STD clinics participating in the STD Surveillance Network* in 2020–2021 compared to 2019 by month *Includes STD clinics in 7 jurisdictions (Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Multnomah County, Oregon; Philadelphia, Philadelphia; New York City, New York; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington)
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Monthly number of STD clinic visits in 4 jurisdictions participating in the STD Surveillance Network* by visit type, January 2019-December 2021. *Includes STD clinics in 4 jurisdictions (Baltimore, Maryland; Multnomah County, Oregon; Philadelphia, Philadelphia; San Francisco, California)
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