Acceptability and feasibility of recruiting women to collect a self-administered vaginal swab at a pharmacy clinic for sexually transmissible infection screening
Date:
08/15/2020
Citation:
Gaydos CA, Barnes M, Holden J, Silver B, Smith R, Hardick J, Quinn TC. Acceptability and feasibility of recruiting women to collect a self-administered vaginal swab at a pharmacy clinic for sexually transmissible infection screening. Sex Health. 2020 Aug;17(4):392-394. doi: 10.1071/SH20077. PMID: 32829744; PMCID: PMC7995601.
Abstract
Willingness to self-collect vaginal swabs at a pharmacy clinic is of interest as a venue to increase sexually transmissible infections (STIs) screening for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomonas. Women self-collected vaginal swabs at the pharmacy, completed questionnaires and received STI results within 2 h. Women with STIs were offered free treatment. A total of 313 of 777 (40.3%) women consented and prevalence for any STI was 3.9%. Questionnaires demonstrated acceptability for self-collection at the pharmacy, with 63% (95% CI 57.3-68) and 32.3% (95% CI 27.4-37.8) indicating they 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' that they felt comfortable with pharmacy collection, respectively. Self-collected vaginal swabs for STI testing for women who were at a pharmacy were feasible and acceptable to women.