Strengthening STD services for men in an urban clinic based program.
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TL;DR
Overall the evaluation suggested the following: effective STD interventions should target all age groups service categories and education levels and a two-pronged approach of education and provider training and support is required.
Abstract
One of a series of Population Council Bangladesh research projects aimed at strengthening population policy and research capacity investigated the hypotheses that 1) increases in sexually transmitted disease (STD) awareness and the availability of comprehensive quality STD services will enhance mens STD treatment-seeking behavior and 2) individual counseling of male STD clients will improve partner notification. Enrolled in a preliminary study were 1467 men who visited two STD clinics in Dhaka in a 9-month period in 1996-97 for a total of 1859 visits. 432 clients (23%) presented with a psychosexual health concern other than STDs. The majority of STD clients were 20-29 years old with low levels of education. Although the study was of insufficient duration to assess the impact of changes in STD education and clinic services a 200% increase in client flow was recorded during the study period and clinic counselors were observed to address broader sexual health issues than was the case before staff training. Other important study outcomes were the development of a computer-based management information system for record keeping and quality of care monitoring and the preparation of IEC materials for male STD clients and clinical staff. Overall the evaluation suggested the following: 1) effective STD interventions should target all age groups service categories and education levels; 2) personal contact is a positive way of reaching men seeking STD services; 3) extensive provider training is required to elicit complete accurate exposure histories; 4) male STD interventions should be combined with other psychosexual health services; and 5) a two-pronged approach of education and provider training and support is required.