STD: Researchers have come up with a test to predict infection risk
A new quiz devised by scientists at John Hopkins School of Medicine aims to predict a person’s risk of a sexually transmitted disease.
Using your age and five questions about your love life, the quiz determines your likelihood of an infection.
Clinical trials have shown the test works well - particularly for women.
The scientists recently looked at 836 women and 558 men in their early twenties who had taken the six-part test.
The questions relate to age and sexual partners
As well as taking the online test the respondents were sent at-home testing kits.
The vast majority were not perceived as high risk, but the women who were deemed to fall in the high-risk category were FOUR times as likely to test positive for chlamydia, gonorrhoea or trichomoniasis than those who were deemed lower risk.
31.4 per cent of high-risk women tested positive for an STI, compared to 8.7 per cent for low-risk women. While 13 per cent of men of high-risk men tested positive and 2.8 per cent of low-risk men.
The researchers weren’t sure why the quiz predicted the risk more accurately with women. They suggest this could be down to men simply having lower STI rates.
The team recommend that high scores should be followed up with immediate testing
The questions ask about a person’s number of sexual partners, the frequency of condom use, the age and past infection status of the respondents.
The scientists say a high score should prompt people to get tested for an infection.
Charlotte Gaydos, a developer of the quiz and a professor in the division of infectious diseases in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said: “We test a lot of people who are not infected, and although a tool like this might not predict every single case, we think it can be helpful in rapidly predicting the likelihood of an STI for physicians and patients.”
With the help of the National Institute of Health, Dr Gaydos and her colleagues started IWantTheKit.org that provides free testing kits to people living in Washington and Maryland.
Infection: Chlamydia bacteria
She added that studies continually tell us that young age, to using condoms and concurrent partners are all risk factors. She believes the test is a way to help more young people get diagnosed and treated, and could also be a useful tool for doctors.
The research was published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
In June 2015, Public Health England (PHE) released a report on sexually transmitted infections in England. The report showed there were 439,243 cases of STIs in 2014.