Screening for sexually transmitted diseases by family planning providers: is it adequate and appropriate?

Of more than 3,000 women interviewed in the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) who had made at least one family planning visit in the 12 months preceding the interview, 50 percent report that they were tested for a sexually transmitted infection. Black women are far more likely to have been screened than are white women (67 percent compared with 47 percent); moreover, a racial differential is seen in every subgroup examined. There is also a large difference in the proportion screened according to the woman's source of family planning care: Those who attended a clinic are much more likely to have been screened than are women who saw a private doctor (62 percent and 43 percent, respectively). As with the race differential, this relationship persists after other variables are controlled for. In addition, women who live in the South are more likely to have been screened than are residents of other regions (58 percent compared with 46 percent). Differences by metropolitan and non-metropolitan area of residence are small and are not statistically significant. Differences by marital status and age at first intercourse appeared statistically significant in preliminary analyses, but when controls for other factors were introduced, these differences became nonsignificant. Since many characteristics that are believed to be important risk markers for sexually transmitted infections are also predictors of whether a woman will be screened for such infections, current screening practices appear, in general, to target the appropriate groups.