Predictors of time spent on partner notification in four US sites

Objective: To identify determinants of time spent on partner notification c lients in four STD programmes in the United States. Methods: 11 disease intervention specialists (DIS) in each of three urban s ites (n=33) and seven DIS in one rural site recorded their activities and c lients for 14 working days. The total amount of time for partner notificati on activities was computed for each client. Data were analysed using random effects regression. Results: Across sires, 429 of 2506 (37.4%) recorded hours were spent on par tner notification (PN) activities with 1148 clients. Client type, STD diagn osis, outcome, demographic characteristics, mileage, and study site explain ed 33.7% of the variance in the total time spent on partner notification cl ients. Clients who took significantly more time than the reference case inc luded those who were both contacts and original patients, HIV/AIDS clients, non-primary and secondary (P&S) syphilis clients, STD clients who were inf ected and treated, and clients for whom travel was necessary. Demographic c haracteristics of both client and worker were nor associated with the time spent on partner notification. Conclusions: These data document the labour intensive nature of partner not ification, especially for HIV and non-P&S syphilis clients. STD programmes that have a higher number of these clients are probably dedicating more res ources to partner notification. More research is needed on additional predi ctors so that programmes can better understand and allocate staff and finan cial resources to partner notification activities.