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

Goal. To determine chlamydia screening practices and the resulting positive test results for adolescents enrolled in a large nonprofit managed care organization. Study Design: The electronic medical records of all 12- to 19year-olds enrolled in a large nonprofit managed care organization serving a demographically diverse patient population from January 1998 through December 1999 were reviewed retrospectively. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.