Evaluation of the Online Partner Messaging Service for Sexually Transmitted Infections Let Them Know.

BACKGROUND

There are limited data on the extent of use of online services that support partner notification for sexually transmitted infections. The online partner notification service Let Them Know was implemented in 2008 to support partner messaging for chlamydia in Australia. In 2010, the service was expanded to include gonorrhea, syphilis, Mycoplasma genitalium, and Trichomonas vaginalis. We aimed to determine usage of Let Them Know between 2011 and 2019.

METHODS

The number of text messages sent via Let Them Know for each infection between 2011 and 2019 was extracted by using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. Users who sent a text message were asked "Were you more likely to let a partner know because of this website?"

RESULTS

The number of text messages sent for each infection increased over the evaluation period with a total of 148,256 text messages sent from the service. Sixty-nine percent (103,026) of users indicated that they were more likely to let a partner know because of the website. The number of text messages increased between 2011 and 2019 from 4,666 to 17,889 (283%) for chlamydia, from 2101 to 6328 (201%) for gonorrhea, from 1895 to 4908 (159%) for syphilis, from 703 to 1953 (178%) for M. genitalium, and from 173 to 629 (264%) for trichomonas.

CONCLUSIONS

This fully automated partner messaging service showed high and increasing use with data suggesting it helped most users contact partners.