Impact of Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sexually Transmitted Infection Screening Claims Among Adolescent Females in a Pediatric Accountable Care Organization in Ohio, United States

Background Testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) decreased during the early months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Less is known about the extent to which screening of asymptomatic adolescents for STIs was specifically affected. Our aim was to describe the impacts of early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic on asymptomatic STI screening and overall STI testing among adolescent females aged 13 to 19. We hypothesized that screening would decrease more than overall testing. Methods We evaluated claims data from a pediatric accountable care organization responsible for approximately 40,000 adolescent females. We assessed rates of asymptomatic screening and overall testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea in this population, comparing the early pandemic to pre-pandemic levels. Results Both STI screening and overall STI testing were found to be significantly decreased during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels. The proportion of tests billed as screening was 70% of tests for April to August 2020 (early pandemic), compared to 67% for October 2019 to February 2020 and 64% for April to August 2019, contrary to our hypothesis. Conclusion Asymptomatic screening represented a similar proportion of STI testing among this population of adolescent females during the early COVID-19 pandemic compared to pre-pandemic testing. More work is needed to understand how asymptomatic screening was proportionally maintained despite COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.