Health Insurance Tied to Lower Chlamydia Hazard!

Posted on May 25th, 2008 by olga

A national study demonstrates that young U.S. adults with health insurance are less probable than their uninsured adult to have the sexually transmitted disease Chlamydia.

Chlamydia is the most widespread bacterial STD in the U.S., with adolescents and young adults at greatest hazard. The infection habitually causes no warning signs, however in women it can lead to long-standing difficulties like pelvic inflammation and childlessness.

As a consequence of this, specialists suggest that all sexually active women younger than 25 get yearly screening for Chlamydia.
The authors of the new study say that young people with health insurance may be more probable to get habitual screening and treatment with antibiotics, which would as well keep them from spreading the infection. They may in addition simply be more aware of Chlamydia and how to lower their hazard.

In the recent study of the more than 9,300 18- to 27-year-olds those who over and over again had health insurance for the duration of the past year had a lower prevalence of Chlamydia.

6.5 percent of those who lacked insurance for the whole year had Chlamydia, versus just over 3 percent of men who were incessantly insured among men. The analogous amount for women was 7.5 percent and just under 5 percent, according to the investigators, led by Dr. William M. Geisler of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

The team reports in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseases that on the whole, black, Hispanic and Native American participants were less probable to be incessantly insured and they also had higher Chlamydia rates than Asian Americans and whites.

But even with race factored in, men with no health insurance still had an upper danger of Chlamydia infection. Among women, the link between insurance and higher Chlamydia risk was weakened when racial disparities were considered.

Chlamydia rates were lower among those who habitually went to a primary care doctor for care, rather than a hospital emergency room, clinic or other site—a decision that’s habitually driven by whether a person has health insurance for both men and women.

The results recommend that greater health coverage among young U.S. adults would help lower their Chlamydia rates, through better access to screening, treatment and counseling on risk reduction according to Geisler’s team.

Of the young adults in their study, 20 percent went with no health insurance for the entire year, at the same time as another 20 percent lacked coverage for some portion of the year.