Young women's reasons to seek sexually transmitted infection screening.

Objectives: To describe young women's reasons to seek and not to seek sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening; to explore whether reasons differed by age and STI screening history.

Design And Sample: Cross-sectional, descriptive. Female students (N = 216) at a university in the Midwestern United States.

Measures: An anonymous online survey was designed based on the Theory of Care Seeking Behavior and literature regarding STI screening among young women.

Results: The most common reason to seek STI screening was to start treatment promptly (85%); the most common reason not to seek screening was being asymptomatic (54%). Participants' reasons differed by age and screening history. Women under 25 were more likely than women 25 and older to seek screening because of encouragement from female role models (p < .01). Women who had never been screened were more likely than women who had been screened to avoid screening because of embarrassment (p < .05). Novel findings included seeking STI screening because it "should be done" if sexually active and because of encouragement from female role models.

Conclusions: Health care and public health professionals can use these findings to develop strategies to improve STI screening rates among young women.