HIV-positive Americans with private health coverage are far from meeting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recommendation of yearly sexually transmitted infection (STI) screenings, Reuters reports. Publishing their findings in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, researchers analyzed 2011 and 2012 data on more than 65,000 HIV-positive individuals enrolled private health plans. The information was culled by the Marketscan datasets, a longitudinal, population-based database.

During a median 396 days, the overall screening rates were 22.2 percent for chlamydia, 21.9 percent for gonorrhea and 51.1 percent for syphilis.

Factors linked to a higher likelihood of STI screening included living in an urban area, female sex, younger age, and being enrolled in insurance for a longer period.

Those who received viral load testing were 1.72 times more likely to receive screenings for chlamydia and gonorrhea, and 3.38 times more likely to be tested for syphilis, when compared with those who did not receive viral load testing.

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To read the study abstract, click here.