title: Racial Differences in Receipt of Chlamydia Testing Among Medicaid-Insured Women in 2013.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the percentage of young, sexually active Medicaid-insured women who were tested for chlamydia by age, race/ethnicity, and history of sexually transmitted disease (STD) diagnosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the medical diagnostic and procedural codes from Truven Health MarketScan Medicaid claims data from 10 states in 2012 and 2013 to estimate the rates of chlamydia testing in 2013 and previous STD diagnosis (diagnosed in 2012) among Medicaid-insured women aged 15-25 years who were sexually active in 2013. We also used a logit model to assess the association between chlamydia testing and women's age, race/ethnicity, and previous STD diagnosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, among approximately 261,000 Medicaid-insured women aged 15-25 years in 2013 who were classified as sexually active, 50.2% were tested for chlamydia in 2013. The chlamydia testing rate was 45.6% for white women and 57.5% for black women. The chlamydia testing rate was 63.5% for women diagnosed as having an STD in 2012 and 46.8% for women not diagnosed as having an STD in 2012. The chlamydia testing rate was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with previous STD diagnosis, age, and race/ethnicity in our logit model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher chlamydia testing rates among black women can be explained in part by higher rates of previous STD diagnoses. Our finding that black women have the highest chlamydia testing rates is encouraging, as improved access to STD prevention services among racial/ethnic minorities can help to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in STDs. However, chlamydia screening remains an underused preventive health service for young women of all racial and ethnic groups.
authors: From the *Division of STD Prevention, National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, Atlanta, GA; and †Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN.
authors: Chirag G
authors: CG
authors: Patel
authors: Harrell W
authors: HW
authors: Chesson
authors: Guoyu
authors: G
authors: Tao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000367:Age Factors; D002690:Chlamydia Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011314:Preventive Health Services; D034121:Reproductive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult