O07 How Often Do Patients Who Test Negative on Online Based STI Screening Still Need to Be Seen in Clinic?

BackgroundWeb-based ‘online’ STI testing can increase capacity and reduce costs but this is dependent on patients not needing to subsequently access a face to face clinic appointment – ‘double dipping’. We assessed subsequent service use following a negative online STI test screen in individuals without symptoms.MethodsOne-year retrospective study at a large integrated sexual health service between January and December 2017. Sexual health clinic appointments occurring within 90 days of a negative STI test, in asymptomatic individuals who underwent testing either online or in clinic were compared. Multivariable analysis of sociodemographic and behavioural characteristics was conducted and factors associated with subsequent clinic use reported as odds ratios (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI).Results31,847 online STI test requests and 40,059 clinic attendances incorporating STI testing were included. 79% (25020/31846) of online STI test users and 49% (19672/40059) of clinic STI test takers were asymptomatic. Subsequent clinic appointments within 90 days of an asymptomatic negative STI test occurred in 6% (484/7769) of the online testing group and 33% (4960/15238) for the clinic tested group. Re-attendance following online testing was associated with being MSM (aOR 2.55[1.58 to 4.09] — MSM vs Female) and a recent prior history of STI testing (aOR 5.65[4.30 to 7.43] ‘clinic tested’ vs ‘No’ recent testing history).ConclusionsThere was a low risk of subsequent clinic attendance amongst online STI test service users with negative test results, suggesting that their needs were being met without placing an additional burden on clinic-based services.