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"It's not a time spent issue, it's a 'what have you spent your time doing?' issue…" A qualitative study of UK patient opinions and expectations for implementation of Point of Care Tests for sexually transmitted infections and antimicrobial resistance.

Fuller, SS; Pacho, A; Broad, CE; Nori, AV; Harding-Esch, EM; Sadiq, ST (2019) "It's not a time spent issue, it's a 'what have you spent your time doing?' issue…" A qualitative study of UK patient opinions and expectations for implementation of Point of Care Tests for sexually transmitted infections and antimicrobial resistance. PLoS One, 14 (4). e0215380. ISSN 1932-6203 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215380
SGUL Authors: Fuller, Sebastian Suarez Pacho, Agata Katarzyna Harding-Esch, Emma Michele

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Abstract

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continue to be a major public health concern in the United Kingdom (UK). Epidemiological models have shown that narrowing the time between STI diagnosis and treatment may reduce the population burden of infection, and rapid, accurate point-of-care tests (POCTs) have potential for increasing correct treatment and mitigating the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We developed the Precise social science programme to incorporate clinician and patient opinions on potential designs and implementation of new POCTs for multiple STIs and AMR detection. We conducted qualitative research, consisting of informal interviews with clinicians and semi-structured in-depth interviews with patients, in six sexual health clinics in the UK. Interviews with clinicians focused on how the new POCTs would likely be implemented into clinical care; these new clinical pathways were then posed to patients in in-depth interviews. Patient interviews showed acceptability of POCTs, however, willingness to wait in clinic for test results depended on the context of patients' sexual healthcare seeking. Patients reporting frequent healthcare visits often based their expectations and opinions of services and POCTs on previous visits. Patients' suggestions for implementation of POCTs included provision of information on service changes and targeting tests to patients concerned they are infected. Our data suggests that patients may accept new POCT pathways if they are given information on these changes prior to attending services and to consider implementing POCTs among patients who are anxious about their infection status and/or who are experiencing symptoms.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2019 Fuller et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords: MD Multidisciplinary, General Science & Technology
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Infection and Immunity Research Institute (INII)
Journal or Publication Title: PLoS One
ISSN: 1932-6203
Language: eng
Dates:
DateEvent
16 April 2019Published
1 April 2019Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
II-LB-0214-20005National Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
PubMed ID: 30990864
Go to PubMed abstract
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/110818
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215380

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