Abstract

Background In 2015, free access to online services for STI self-sampling was made available to residents in Lambeth and Southwark. Little is known about who accesses online services within these boroughs and whether access is equitable between demographic groups. Aims To describe the demographic factors associated with use of online services for STI self-sampling. Methods A cross-sectional analysis of routinely collected data from April to October 2015 for online and sexual health clinics in Lambeth and Southwark. We included residents who attended sexual health clinics or used online sexual health services for basic STI testing and were over the age of 16. Data were analysed by means of logistic regression. Results A total of 9,496 basic STI testing services were delivered, 6,697 (70.52%) were delivered in clinics while 2,799 (29.48%) were delivered online. Descriptive data for service use by demographic group is available in Table 1. When compared to residents aged 16–20 years old, residents aged 21–24(OR = 1.93, p ≤ 0.001), and 25–30 (OR = 2.17, p ≤ 0.001) were more likely to use online services than clinic services. Females were more likely to use online services than clinic services when compared to males (OR = 1.55, p ≤ 0.001). When compared to residents of white ethnicity, residents who identified as Asian (OR = 0.74, p = 0.04), Black (OR = 0.43,p ≤ 0.001) or Other (OR = 0.48, p ≤ 0.001) were less likely to use online services than clinic services. When compared with heterosexuals, homosexuals (OR = 1.46, p ≤ 0.001) and bisexuals (OR = 3.10, p ≤ 0.001) were more likely to use online services than clinic services. Conclusion There are demographic differences between residents that access online services and those that access clinic services. These data and more up to date data will be presented at the conference.

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