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Examining the potential public health benefit of offering STI testing to men in amateur football clubs: evidence from cross-sectional surveys

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, July 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (75th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (62nd percentile)

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Title
Examining the potential public health benefit of offering STI testing to men in amateur football clubs: evidence from cross-sectional surveys
Published in
BMC Public Health, July 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12889-015-1951-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Catherine H. Mercer, Sebastian S. Fuller, John M. Saunders, Pamela Muniina, Andrew J. Copas, Graham J. Hart, Lorna J. Sutcliffe, Anne M. Johnson, Jackie A. Cassell, Claudia S. Estcourt

Abstract

In Britain, young people continue to bear the burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) so efforts are required, especially among men, to encourage STI testing. The SPORTSMART study trialled an intervention that sought to achieve this by offering chlamydia and gonorrhoea test-kits to men attending amateur football clubs between October and December 2012. With football the highest participation team sport among men in England, this paper examines the potential public health benefit of offering STI testing to men in this setting by assessing their sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behaviours, and healthcare behaviour and comparing them to men in the general population. Data were collected from 192 (male) members of 6 football clubs in London, United Kingdom, aged 18-44 years via a 20-item pen-and-paper self-completion questionnaire administered 2 weeks after the intervention. These were compared to data collected from 409 men of a similar age who were resident in London when interviewed during 2010-2012 for the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3), a national probability survey that used computer-assisted-personal-interviewing with computer-assisted-self-interview. Age standardisation and multivariable regression were used to account for sociodemographic differences between the surveys. Relative to men in the general population, SPORTSMART men were younger (32.8 % vs. 21.7 % aged under 25 y), and more likely to report (all past year) at least 2 sexual partners (adjusted odds ratio, AOR: 3.25, 95 % CI: 2.15-4.92), concurrent partners (AOR: 2.05, 95 % CI: 1.39-3.02), and non-use of condoms (AOR: 2.17, 95 % CI: 1.39-3.41). No difference was observed in STI/HIV risk perception (AOR for reporting "not at all at risk" of STIs: 1.25, 95 % CI: 0.76-2.04; of HIV: AOR: 1.54, 95 % CI: 0.93-2.55), nor in reporting STI testing in the past year (AOR: 0.83, 95 % CI: 0.44-1.54), which was reported by only one in six men. Relative to young men in the general population, football club members who completed the SPORTSMART survey reported greater sexual risk behaviour but similar STI/HIV risk perception and STI testing history. Offering STI testing in amateur football clubs may therefore widen access to STI testing and health promotion messages for men at higher STI risk, which, given the minority currently testing and the popularity of football in England, should yield both individual and public health benefit.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 9 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 66 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 66 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 10 15%
Researcher 9 14%
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 14%
Student > Bachelor 9 14%
Student > Postgraduate 2 3%
Other 10 15%
Unknown 17 26%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 12 18%
Nursing and Health Professions 9 14%
Social Sciences 7 11%
Sports and Recreations 3 5%
Psychology 3 5%
Other 12 18%
Unknown 20 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 July 2015.
All research outputs
#5,641,946
of 23,340,595 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#5,557
of 15,202 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#57,340
of 235,601 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#98
of 263 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,340,595 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 75th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 15,202 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 235,601 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 75% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 263 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.