Guideline Adherence Suboptimal for Chlamydia, Gonorrhea Treatment

MONDAY, March 31, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Across primary care practices, guideline adherence remains suboptimal for chlamydia and gonorrhea, according to a study published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Shiying Hao, Ph.D., from Stanford University in California, and colleagues used electronic health records to identify patients with diagnosis codes or positive test results for chlamydia and/or gonorrhea from 2018 to 2022 to examine how well treatment in primary care settings adhered to guidelines.

The researchers found that 75.3 percent of the 6,678 cases of chlamydia and 69.6 percent of the 2,206 cases of gonorrhea were treated. Higher treatment rates were seen for females, individuals aged 10 to 29 years, suburban dwellers, and patients with chlamydia-gonorrhea coinfection. Treatment with the recommended antibiotic occurred infrequently (14.0 percent of chlamydia cases were treated with doxycycline; 38.7 percent of gonorrhea cases were treated with ceftriaxone). Patients aged 50 to 59 years and non-Hispanic Blacks had longer time to treatment for chlamydia (time ratios, 1.61 relative to those aged 20 to 29 years and 1.17 relative to Whites).

“Given the importance of timely treatment for these sexually transmitted infections to curb the spread of infection, there remains substantial opportunity to improve treatment rates across all patient groups, with particular attention directed to those in vulnerable populations,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text