Sociodemographic characteristics, health-related factors and sexual behaviours associated with reporting testing for STIs during two periods of the first year of the UK’s pandemic response
| Lookback period (period number) | March–June/July 2020 (P1) | July–November/December 2020 (P2) | ||||||||||
| Sample composition, col % (n) | (Row) % reporting a recent STI test (n) | uOR (95% CI) for reporting a recent STI test | P value | aOR (95% CI)* for reporting a recent STI test | P value | Sample composition, col % (n) | (Row) % reporting a recent STI test (n) | uOR (95% CI) for reporting a recent STI test | P value | aOR (95% CI)* for reporting a recent STI test | P value | |
| All† | 100.0 (1950) | 25.0 (487) | – | – | – | – | 100.0 (1463) | 37.2 (544) | – | – | – | – |
| Sociodemographic characteristics | ||||||||||||
| Age (years) | ||||||||||||
| Under 30 | 24.6 (479) | 28.8 (138) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | 0.001 | 26.5 (388) | 39.2 (152) | 1 | 0.005 | 1 | 0.136 |
| 30–44 | 35.3 (688) | 28.3 (195) | 0.98 (0.76 to 1.27) | 0.82 (0.61 to 1.10) | 37.8 (553) | 40.9 (226) | 1.07 (0.82 to 1.40) | 0.79 (0.57 to 1.09) | ||||
| 45 and over | 40.2 (783) | 19.7 (154) | 0.60 (0.46 to 0.79) | 0.58 (0.43 to 0.79) | 35.7 (522) | 31.8 (166) | 0.72 (0.55 to 0.95) | 0.71 (0.50 to 1.00) | ||||
| Sexual identity | ||||||||||||
| Gay | 86.1 (1678) | 26.5 (444) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | 0.003 | 83.4 (1220) | 39.3 (479) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | 0.235 |
| Bisexual‡ | 14.0 (272) | 15.8 (43) | 0.52 (0.37 to 0.74) | 0.58 (0.40 to 0.83) | 16.6 (243) | 26.8 (65) | 0.56 (0.42 to 0.77) | 0.80 (0.56 to 1.15) | ||||
| Ethnicity | ||||||||||||
| White§ | 88.6 (1728) | 24.5 (424) | 1 | 0.219 | – | n.a. | 87.8 (1284) | 36.7 (471) | 1 | 0.290 | – | n.a. |
| All other ethnic groups¶ | 11.4 (222) | 28.4 (63) | 1.22 (0.89 to 1.66) | – | 12.2 (179) | 40.8 (73) | 1.19 (0.86 to 1.64) | – | ||||
| Country of residence in the UK | ||||||||||||
| England | 86.1 (1679) | 27.0 (454) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | <0.001 | 84.3 (1233) | 39.9 (491) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | <0.001 |
| Outside England | 13.9 (271) | 12.2 (33) | 0.37 (0.26 to 0.55) | 0.37 (0.25 to 0.55) | 15.7 (230) | 23.0 (53) | 0.45 (0.33 to 0.63) | 0.53 (0.36 to 0.78) | ||||
| Born in the UK | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 78.1 (1523) | 24.2 (368) | 1 | 0.121 | 1 | 0.588 | 76.9 (1125) | 33.9 (381) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | 0.003 |
| No | 21.9 (427) | 27.9 (119) | 1.21 (0.95 to 1.54) | 0.93 (0.71 to 1.22) | 23.1 (338) | 48.2 (163) | 1.82 (1.42 to 2.33) | 1.58 (1.17 to 2.14) | ||||
| Highest educational qualification | ||||||||||||
| Degree or higher | 59.0 (1149) | 27.1 (311) | 1 | 0.011 | 1 | 0.065 | 57.4 (840) | 42.0 (353) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | 0.029 |
| Below degree | 41.1 (800) | 22.0 (176) | 0.76 (0.61 to 0.94) | 0.80 (0.64 to 1.01) | 42.6 (623) | 30.7 (191) | 0.61 (0.49 to 0.76) | 0.75 (0.57 to 0.97) | ||||
| Employed (inc. furlough**) | ||||||||||||
| Yes | 77.2 (1497) | 25.3 (378) | 1 | 0.656 | – | n.a. | 74.9 (1095) | 37.9 (415) | 1 | 0.327 | – | n.a. |
| No | 22.8 (442) | 24.2 (107) | 0.95 (0.74 to 1.21) | – | 25.2 (368) | 35.1 (129) | 0.88 (0.69 to 1.13) | – | ||||
| Health-related factors | ||||||||||||
| HIV status | ||||||||||||
| Negative/Unknown | 89.9 (1753) | 25.2 (442) | 1 | 0.462 | 1 | 0.753 | 89.4 (1308) | 36.0 (471) | 1 | 0.008 | 1 | <0.001 |
| Positive | 10.1 (197) | 22.8 (45) | 0.88 (0.62 to 1.25) | 1.06 (0.72 to 1.56) | 10.6 (155) | 47.1 (73) | 1.58 (1.13 to 2.21) | 2.88 (1.94 to 4.28) | ||||
| PrEP use (in the lookback period) | ||||||||||||
| No | 86.4 (1677) | 19.9 (333) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | <0.001 | 77.0 (1125) | 25.2 (284) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | <0.001 |
| Yes | 13.6 (264) | 57.2 (151) | 5.39 (4.11 to 7.08) | 4.23 (3.10 to 5.76) | 23.1 (337) | 77.2 (260) | 10.0 (7.50 to 13.33) | 7.83 (5.65 to 10.86) | ||||
| Life satisfaction level | ||||||||||||
| Medium–very high | 68.8 (1340) | 24.4 (327) | 1 | 0.368 | – | n.a. | 75.6 (1106) | 37.1 (410) | 1 | 0.875 | – | n.a. |
| Low | 31.2 (608) | 26.3 (160) | 1.11 (0.89–1.38) | – | 24.4 (357) | 37.5 (134) | 1.02 (0.80 to 1.31) | – | ||||
| Sexual behaviour ( in the lookback period ) | ||||||||||||
| No. of CAS partners | ||||||||||||
| None | 62.1 (1211) | 18.9 (229) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | <0.001 | 43.2 (632) | 21.0 (133) | 1 | <0.001 | 1 | <0.001 |
| One | 20.4 (398) | 27.9 (111) | 1.66 (1.28 to 2.16) | 1.66 (1.24 to 2.20) | 23.7 (346) | 30.6 (106) | 1.66 (1.23 to 2.23) | 1.50 (1.07 to 2.10) | ||||
| Multiple | 17.5 (341) | 43.1 (147) | 3.25 (2.51 to 4.21) | 2.13 (1.58 to 2.87) | 33.2 (485) | 62.9 (305) | 6.36 (4.87 to 8.29) | 3.44 (2.54 to 4.65) | ||||
*Adjusting for: age; sexual identity; country of residence; born in the UK; education; living with partner; HIV status; PrEP use; CAS.
†Cisgender MSM.
‡Including ‘Bisexual’ (S1: n=220; S2: n=179); ‘Other’ (S1: n=44; S2: n=50); ‘Straight’ (S1: n=8; S2: n=14).
§Including ‘White British’ (S1: n=1426; S2: n=1045); ‘White Irish’ (S1: n=75; S2: n=55); ‘White other’ (S1: n=227; S2: n=184).
¶Including ‘Black’ (S1: n=31; S2: n=41); ‘Asian’ (S1: n=101; S2: n=63); ‘Mixed or other’ (S1: n=90; S2: n=75).
**The UK government paid 80% of the salary of those who were unable to work due to COVID-19 restrictions.15
aOR, adjusted OR; CAS, condomless anal sex; CI, confidence interval; MSM, men who have sex with men; n.a., not applicable; PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis; uOR, unadjusted OR.