Primary health care providers surveyed commonly misinterpret 'first void urine' for chlamydia screening

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doi:10.1071/SH08087

Primary health care providers surveyed commonly misinterpret ‘first void urine’ for chlamydia screening

M. Josephine Lusk ^A, Ruby Uddin ^B, Mark Ferson ^C ^D, William Rawlinson ^E, Pam Konecny ^A ^F ^G

^A Short Street Sexual Health Centre, Department of Immunology, Allergy & Infectious Diseases, St George Hospital, Kogarah, NSW 2217, Australia.
^B St Mary’s Hospital, Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Imperial College Healthcare National Health Service Trust, London, W2 1NY, UK.
^C Public Health Unit, South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Health, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
^D School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of NSW, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia.
^E Virology Division, Department of Microbiology (SEALS), Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick NSW 2031, Australia; School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences and School of Medical Sciences, University of NSW, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia.
^F Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW 2052, Australia.
^G Corresponding author. Email: pam.konecny@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au





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Sexual Health 6(1) 91–93 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/SH08087
Submitted: 26 November 2008 Accepted: 15 January 2009 Published online: 23 February 2009

Abstract

An open question survey of general practitioners (GP) and hospital emergency department (ED) doctors revealed that the term ‘FVU’ (first void urine) used for urine chlamydia testing, is ambiguous, potentially leading to incorrect urine sample collection and barriers to effective screening. The results of this survey indicate that only 4.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.5–14.5%) of GP and 6.9% (95% CI 0.9–22.8%) of ED doctors respectively, correctly interpreted the meaning of FVU. The majority of clinicians surveyed misunderstood ‘FVU’ to require the first urine void of the day, accounting for 68.1% (95% CI 52.9–80.9%) of GP responses and 37.9% (95% CI 20.7–57.7%) of ED doctors responses. This highlights the need for clarification and standardisation of terminology used in urine chlamydia screening for health care providers, in order to optimise strategies for diagnosis and control of the ongoing chlamydia epidemic.

Keywords: General Practitioners, polymerase chain reaction, STD screening.