Adolescent chlamydia testing practices and diagnosed infections in a large managed care organization

To determine chlamydia screening practices and the resulting positive test results for adolescents enrolled in a large nonprofit managed care organization.

The electronic medical records of all 12- to 19-year-olds enrolled in a large nonprofit managed care organization serving a demographically diverse patient population from January 1998 through December 1999 were reviewed retrospectively.

Among the 43,205 female and 44,133 male managed care organization members, ages 12 to 19 years in 1998-1999, 7575 adolescents (8.7%) (6914 females [16%] and 661 males [1.5%]) were tested for chlamydia. Among the members tested, chlamydia was diagnosed in 1109 adolescents (14.6%) (983 females [14.2] and 126 males [19.1%]); 761 (68.6%) adolescents were retested for chlamydia; and 182 (16.4%) had repeat positive test results. The median time to diagnosis of a repeat infection was 6 months.

Chlamydia imposes a large disease burden in the private, organized healthcare sector. Managed care organizations can use operational data to enhance chlamydia prevention services by defining testing practices and local disease prevalence.