Text Messaging after HIV and STI Screening: Do Patients' Profiles Matter?

BACKGROUND: Text messaging after STI/HIV screening may be a cost-effective means of improving patient care, but it may not be appropriate for all patients. This study aimed to explore the profiles of patients who did not participate in an SMS program after STI/HIV testing.

METHODS: During October 2016, 396 patients in Paris were screened for STI/HIV and were invited to complete an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. Patients were offered the possibility of being notified by SMS after testing and 68% accepted (SMS group) whereas 32% did not (no-SMS group). Each of the 100 patients from the no-SMS group who had completed the questionnaire was matched with the next patient from the SMS group. Factors associated with non-participation in the SMS program were studied using conditional logistic regression models.

RESULTS: Participation in the SMS program was not related to STI screening characteristics (screening results and seriousness of the diseases screened), but appeared to be related to patient characteristics. In multivariate analysis, compared with patients in the SMS group, those in the no-SMS group were more often older, socially less favoured (born in Africa or Asia, no university diploma, living outside Paris). They also more often declined to answer sexual questions, which could reflect a need for privacy and discretion.

CONCLUSIONS: Although SMS after STI/HIV screening is well accepted, it does not suit all patients. Several contact options should be proposed in order to comply with patients' preferences and to reduce the risk of non-delivery of STI screening results.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.