Inequities in Chlamydia trachomatis Screening Between Black and White Adolescents in a Large Pediatric Primary Care Network, 2015–2019

Abstract

Objectives. To identify associations between patient race and annual chlamydia screening among adolescent females. Methods. We performed a retrospective cohort study of females aged 15 to 19 years in a 31-clinic pediatric primary care network in Pennsylvania and New Jersey from 2015 through 2019. Using mixed-effect logistic regressions, we estimated associations between annual chlamydia screening and patient (race/ethnicity, age, previous chlamydia screening and infection, insurance type) and clinic (size, setting) characteristics. We decomposed potential effects of clinician’s implicit racial bias and screening, using covariates measuring the proportion of Black patients in each clinician’s practice. Results. There were 68 935 well visits among 37 817 females, who were 28.8% Black and 25.8% Medicaid insured. The mean annual chlamydia screening rate was 11.1%. Black females had higher odds of screening (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.51, 1.84) than did White females. In the clinician characteristics model, individual clinicians were more likely to screen their Black versus non-Black patients (AOR = 1.88; 95% CI = 1.65, 2.15). Conclusions. Racial bias may affect screening practices and should be addressed in future interventions, given the critical need to increase population-level chlamydia screening.(Am J Public Health. 2022;112(1):135–143. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306498 )