Profile of callers to the VD National Hotline

Information concerning callers to the VD (venereal disease) National Hotline was gleaned from study of a sample consisting of the records of 3,272 callers; various demographic, epidemiologic, and individual perceptions of infection or exposure to disease were analyzed. These data were compared with data from the sentinel clinics for sexually transmissible diseases. Analysis showed that 62.5% of sample Hotline callers were male and 37.5% were female, a distribution similar to that of diagnosed clinic patients (69.7% male, 30.3% female). Of male callers, 57.1+ were greater than or equal to 25 years old and 38.2% of female callers had attained this age, whereas 44.4% of male patients and 43.3% of female patients were 25 years or older. Disease concerns of Hotline callers were focused on genital herpes and syphilis; however, among clinic patients, more cases of gonorrhea and nongonococcal urethritis were diagnosed. Thirty-four and one-half percent of callers indicated that they believed they were either infected with or exposed to VD, and 45.4% of callers accepted referrals to clinics for medical evaluation. There percentages remained constant, irrespective of how callers heard about Hotline services; this fact leads to further questions concerning the most effective methods of alerting and educating the public in regard to venereal disease.