Screening asymptomatic adolescent men for Chlamydia trachomatis in school-based health centers using urine-based nucleic acid amplification tests.

Background: Urine-based screening for Chlamydia trachomatis using highly sensitive and specific nucleic acid amplification tests offers a unique opportunity to screen men attending school-based health centers.

Methods: As part of a large multicenter chlamydia screening project in men, 1434 students were enrolled; 1090 in high schools in Baltimore and 344 middle and high-school students in Denver. Students were screened for chlamydia using urine-based nucleic acid amplification tests at well adolescent visits, acute care visits, or visits for other reasons, such as sports physicals. A self-administered survey to ascertain sexual risk behaviors was used. Data were analyzed separately for Baltimore and Denver, with univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results: The overall prevalence in asymptomatic adolescent men was 6.8% (7.5% in Baltimore and 4.7% in Denver, P = n.s.). Students in Denver were older, more racially diverse, and more likely to have had intercourse in the previous 2 months than students in Baltimore. Students in Baltimore were more likely than those in Denver to have used a condom at last intercourse with casual and main partners. Among men in Denver but not Baltimore, condom use at last intercourse with both casual (OR 0.15, 95% CI, 0.03, 0.78) and main partners (OR 0.30, 95% CI, 0.10, 0.91) was protective against infection. The only risk factor for CT infection in Baltimore students was age (OR 1.47, 95% CI, 1.23, 1.75). In multivariate analysis that included age (as a continuous variable), race, history of an STI, any sex partner in the last 2 months, >1 sex partner in the past 12 months, a new partner in the last 2 months, and condom use with last main and last casual partner, age (adjusted odds ratio 1.34, 95% CI, 1.11, 1.62) and black race (adjusted odds ratio 2.37, 95% CI, 1.21, 4.63) were the only variables associated with testing chlamydia positive.

Conclusions: School-based health centers are important venues in which to perform urine-based screening for chlamydia in sexually active, asymptomatic males, especially in high prevalence communities, and such screening provides the opportunity to identify and treat substantial numbers of chlamydia infections.