Free online chlamydia and gonorrhoea urine test request in Queensland, Australia: convenience of home sample collection versus pathology collection centre attendance for faster results.

Background A free online chlamydia and gonorrhoea urine testing service (Webtest) is available for people living in Queensland, Australia. There are two options to provide a urine sample: at a pathology collection centre or by using a home mailing kit. The study aimed to trial these two testing options designed for young people and describe which is the preferred testing choice. METHODS: Data for online requests made from 3 August 2017 to 31 December 2019 provides information for age, gender, location of clients, results received, treatment and partner notification reported by people with positive results. RESULTS: For 29 months, there were 4642 Webtest requests and 2906 valid results received. For young people (16-29 years), chlamydia positivity was 8.2% (172/2105; 95% CI, 7.1-9.4) versus 3.2% (26/801; 95% CI, 2.2-4.7) for people aged ≥30 years, and 6.8% (198/2906; 95% CI, 6.0-7.8) for all ages. Home mailing kits were the most popular testing choice, with 68.0% (1977/2906) of results received from urine submitted by post and 32.0% (929/2906) via pathology collection centre. CONCLUSIONS: The free online test request service engaged young people at risk of sexually transmissible infections and found home sample collection was most popular.

Free online chlamydia and gonorrhoea urine test request in Queensland: sexually transmissible infections testing can be hard for young people even if the process is easy.

Online options to request sexually transmissible infections testing are increasingly popular and a free online chlamydia and gonorrhoea urine testing service is available for people living in Queensland, Australia. Data from 3 August 2017 to 31 August 2019 provide information for 1316 reminder calls to young people (aged 16-29 years) to encourage sample submission. The reminder calls generated few additional samples for testing, suggesting young people may have changed their mind about using the service, sought testing elsewhere or were reluctant to talk further about their original decision to request a test online.

Great expectations: An analysis of researchers' and policy makers' perceptions of the potential value of the Australian indigenous burden of disease study for policy.

The "Burden of disease and injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples" was commissioned by the Australian government as part of the Australian Burden of Disease study. This paper explores the extent to which key actors in the research and policy communities expected the Indigenous Burden of Disease study's findings to inform, influence, or drive federal decisions concerning Indigenous health in Australia. This qualitative research undertook interviews with 13 key informants with significant involvement in the Indigenous Burden of Disease study: six researchers, five policy makers, and two knowledge brokers. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed, and the findings were triangulated with a review of the literature. Policy makers and researchers anticipated that the Indigenous Burden of Disease study would improve the available information for policy deliberations about Indigenous health. Beyond that, their expectations about its policy influence differed substantially, with researchers more confident of the study's capacity to guide health priorities, and policy makers situating findings in the context of other critical inputs. Expectations of policy influence are shaped by the disciplinary perspectives of actors, and their relationship to policy outcomes and cannot be examined without also considering the policy, political, and financing context of the study being analyzed.

A case study in the use of evidence in a changing political context: an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service re-examines practice models, governance and financing.

This paper examines the response of a regional body, the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH), coordinating Aboriginal community controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) in south-east Queensland, to research evidence as they prioritise and plan services in response to internal economic and organisational factors, as well as external policy change. An event-based analysis of a quarterly management meeting of the IUIH allowed an exploration of how the IUIH uses a range of evidence to respond to the challenges faced within the Aboriginal community controlled health sector. The study identified three distinct but interconnected processes: (1) identifying evidence for change; (2) exploring and reframing this evidence; and (3) the application of this evidence at different levels of policy and practice. These processes were evident in each of the three major agendas addressed during the meeting, namely navigating current political change, reforming the ACCHO business model and reframing the available evidence for advocacy. The result has been the emergence of a new service delivery model, in which evidence supports accountability, change management, self-sufficiency and attempts to redefine community control.