Effectiveness of yearly, register based screening for chlamydia in the Netherlands: controlled trial with randomised stepped wedge implementation.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of register based, yearly chlamydia screening.

Design: Controlled trial with randomised stepped wedge implementation in three blocks.

Setting: Three regions of the Netherlands: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and South Limburg.

Keeping participants on board: increasing uptake by automated respondent reminders in an Internet-based chlamydia screening in the Netherlands.

Background: Effectiveness of Chlamydia screening programs is determined by an adequate level of participation and the capturing of high-risk groups. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of automated reminders by letter, email and short message service (SMS) on package request and sample return in an Internet-based Chlamydia screening among people aged 16 to 29 years in the Netherlands.

Methods: Individuals not responding to the invitation letter received a reminder letter after 1 month.

Who participates in the Dutch Chlamydia screening? A study on demographic and behavioral correlates of participation and positivity.

Background: In the Netherlands, an Internet-based Chlamydia Screening Implementation was initiated in 3 regions, aiming to reduce population prevalence by annual testing and treatment of people aged 16 to 29 years. We studied who was reached in the first screening round by relating participation and chlamydia positivity to sociodemographic and sexual risk factors.

Methods: Data from the 2008/2009 screening round were analyzed (261,025 screening invitations, 41,638 participants).

Systematic selection of screening participants by risk score in a Chlamydia screening programme is feasible and effective.

Objectives: Systematic screening for Chlamydia trachomatis by individual invitation can be optimised by filtering participants on risk profile, excluding people at no or low risk. The authors investigated this technique in a large-scale chlamydia screening programme in The Netherlands in one rural region where relatively low prevalence was expected (<2%).

Methods: Invitees were alerted by personal letter to log in to http://www.

Acceptability of the internet-based Chlamydia screening implementation in the Netherlands and insights into nonresponse.

Background: The study assessed the acceptability of internet-based Chlamydia screening using home-testing kits among 16- to 29-year-old participants and nonparticipants in the first year of a Chlamydia Screening Implementation program in the Netherlands.

Methods: Questionnaire surveys were administered to randomly selected participants (acceptability survey) and nonparticipants (nonresponse survey) in 3 regions of the Netherlands where screening was offered. Participants received email invitations to an online survey; nonparticipants received postal questionnaires.

Rationale, design, and results of the first screening round of a comprehensive, register-based, Chlamydia screening implementation programme in the Netherlands.

Background: Implementing Chlamydia trachomatis screening in the Netherlands has been a point of debate for several years. The National Health Council advised against implementing nationwide screening until additional data collected from a pilot project in 2003 suggested that screening by risk profiles could be effective. A continuous increase in infections recorded in the national surveillance database affirmed the need for a more active approach.

Evaluation design of a systematic, selective, internet-based, Chlamydia screening implementation in the Netherlands, 2008-2010: implications of first results for the analysis.

Background: A selective, systematic, Internet-based, Chlamydia Screening Implementation for 16 to 29-year-old residents started in three regions in the Netherlands in April 2008: in the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and a more rural region, South Limburg. This paper describes the evaluation design and discusses the implications of the findings from the first screening round for the analysis. The evaluation aims to determine the effects of screening on the population prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis after multiple screening rounds.