Abstract
Partner notification (PN) is an essential element of sexually transmitted infection (STI) control. It enables identification, treatment and advice for sexual contacts who may benefit from additional preventive interventions such as HIV pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. PN is most effective in reducing STI transmission when it reaches individuals who are most likely to have an STI and to engage in sexual behaviour that facilitates STI transmission, including having multiple and/or new sex partners. Outcomes of PN practice need to be measurable in order to inform standards. They need to address all five stages in the cascade of care: elicitation of partners, establishing contactable partners, notification, testing and treatment. In the United Kingdom, established outcome measures cover only the first three stages and do not take into account the type of sexual partnership. We report an evidence-based process to develop new PN outcomes and inform standards of care. We undertook a systematic literature review, evaluation of published information on types of sexual partnership and a modified Delphi process to reach consensus. We propose six new PN outcome measures at five stages of the cascade, including stratification by sex partnership type. Our framework for PN outcome measurement has potential to contribute in other domains, including Covid-19 contact tracing.
Highlights
Partner notification (PN) is a key strategy in sexually transmitted infection (STI) control
For effective evaluation of PN services for STI prevention, we need auditable outcome measures addressing each step of the PN cascade, which recognise the importance of partnership type
A more comprehensive and outcomes-focussed approach to auditing PN services will enable the cost-effective targeting of PN services and justify to funders the resources needed to do this
Summary
Partner notification (PN) is a key strategy in sexually transmitted infection (STI) control. -Total number of sexual contacts by partnership type who accessed a clinic/received a service in person or online as reported by the index case and as verified by a HCW This measure was considered to be important to enable assessment of variation in contactable partners’ notification by clinic settings and types, patient groups, and type of STI, and its impact on PN success, as well as to provide insight into the servicelevel workload. It was highlighted that the LUSTRUM team had at that time demonstrated proof of feasibility by training staff members across 20 sexual health clinics to collect data using these partnership categories from index cases, subsequently collected in our RCT [15] Experts discussed whether these categories have value to inform the targeting or approaches used in PN, and in evaluating outcomes. Given the range of settings providing sexual health services in the UK, an assessment of whether these outcomes can be collected in settings others than sexual health clinics, such as General Practice, was proposed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
