You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
BASHH column
Coronavirus (COVID-19) and young people’s sexual health
  1. Rebecca Thomson-Glover1,
  2. Hayley Hamlett1,
  3. Daniel Weston2,
  4. Jane Ashby2
  1. 1 Sexual Health Department, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Prescot, Knowsley, UK
  2. 2 Sexual Health and HIV Department, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, London, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Rebecca Thomson-Glover, Sexual Health Department, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Prescot WA9 3DA, Knowsley, UK; r.thomson-glover{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2020-054699

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Background

    COVID-19 has reduced health-seeking behaviour in the UK1 including in sexual health services (SHS).2

    We sought to describe changes in sexual health attendances among young people (YP) within a semirural service setting (A) and at services based in London and Surrey (B) during the weeks preceding and following lockdown.

    Results

    Our findings (table 1) confirmed a large fall in attendances across all age ranges in all settings following lockdown in keeping with the rapid reconfiguration of services during COVID-19 response. In those aged under 18 years there was a disproportionately larger reduction in attendances compared with those aged 18 and over, and this discrepancy was particularly marked in setting A (semirural).

    View this table:
    • In this window
    • In a new window
    Table 1

    Comparison of attendances at two sexual health services (A/B) pre and during the COVID-19 lockdown period

    Attendances for emergency contraception (EC) (emergency hormonal contraception and postcoital intrauterine devices were compared (table 2). Both services demonstrated that during the first 6 weeks of lockdown, no under 18 year olds …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors On behalf of BASHH Adolescent Special Interest Group (SIG).

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.