Adolescents and young adults represent a substantial proportion of US sexually transmitted infection diagnoses, yet systematic screening for gonorrhea and chlamydia in emergency departments (EDs) is not standard.
A multicenter pragmatic trial comparing usual care, targeted, and universal screening approaches found that targeted screening using electronic health record–embedded risk assessment tools resulted in the highest population-level detection of infections.
Brief educational interventions in ED settings have limited impact on increasing STI testing uptake among young women, underscoring the importance of integrated, systematic screening processes rather than reliance on patient or clinician-initiated testing.
The findings support implementation of broad-scale, systematic gonorrhea and chlamydia screening in pediatric EDs as a critical public health strategy to improve STI detection and reduce transmission among adolescents.
