Texting young people about safe sex does not reduce chlamydia and gonorrhea reinfection bmj_latest
Sending regular texts to young people who have recently had a sexually transmitted infection to encourage safer sex behaviors does not reduce rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea reinfection, finds a trial published byIn fact, the findings show that more reinfections occurred in the group receiving texts than in the control group, prompting the researchers to call for rigorous evaluation of health communication interventions.
Their findings are based on over 6,000 people aged 16-24 years recruited from 92 sexual health clinics across the UK, with a recent diagnosis of or treatment for chlamydia, gonorrhea, or non-specific urethritis between 1 April 2016 and 23 November 2018.and received a series of text messages to improve sex behaviors: four texts daily for days 1-3, one or two daily for days 4-28, two or three weekly for month 2, and 2-5 monthly for months 3-12.
At four weeks, 86% of participants in the intervention group versus 84% in the control group had notified the last partner they had sex with before testing positive to get treatment. The proportion of people with a new partner and with two or more partners at one year was also higher in the intervention group.