Analysis of attendance motivation in a Belfast venereal diseases clinic.

Abstract

The object of this study was three-fold:(1) To analyse the factors which prompted patients to attend the 'Special Clinic' of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and so to determine the relative importance of symptoms in patients of both sexes.(2) To judge the effect of venereal disease propaganda, health education, and contact-tracing in bringing to the clinic patients in whom symptoms were absent or ignored.(3) To compare histories from women with gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis, or both infections, to discover the extent to which symptoms prompted attendance, and to judge whether the reasons for attendance would give a valid means of assessing the overall severity of symptoms from each type of infection.The first two parts of the study included all patients making their first ever appearance at the clinic from the period January 1, 19691, , until June 30, 1969. In all there were 702 patients, 446 men and 256 women, giving a male/female ratio of 1-74 to 1. In the third part of the study, the cases ofwomen with gonorrhoea, trichomoniasis, or both, who were diagnosed during the years 1967, 1968, and the first 6 months of 1969, were included.Received for publication July 6, 1970 Findings and commentary Table I

Default patterns of patients attending clinics for sexually transmitted diseases.

“…The likely explanation is that most men come to a clinic because of symptoms, whereas most women are asymptomatic at the first visit (Mahony, 1972). Men therefore tend to cease attending when symptoms clear up which is very often after taking the treatment given to them at the first visit.…”

Gonorrhoea in women and exposure to risk.

“…In the absence of direct referral from a sexual contact, a certain proportion of women who had no significant symptoms must have attended because they knew that they had been exposed to the risk of infection. In a study of attendance motivation in Belfast, Mahony (1972) reported that only two women (from 130) with gonorrhoea alone had attended because of symptoms compared with 20 per cent. of 71 women with trichomoniasis in addition to gonorrhoea.…”