Summary of findings 3. Expedited partner therapy compared with enhanced patient referral for partner notification for STIs, including HIV.
| Expedited partner therapy compared with enhanced patient referral for partner notification for STIs, including HIV | ||||||
| Health problem: partner notification for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV Settings: people in rural and urban areas, given a diagnosis of STI (clinically or by a laboratory) in health services Intervention: expedited partner therapy Comparison: enhanced patient referral | ||||||
| Outcomes | Illustrative comparative risks* (95% CI) | Relative effect (95% CI) | No of Participants (studies) | Quality of the evidence (GRADE) | Comments | |
| Assumed risk | Corresponding risk | |||||
| Enhanced patient referral | EPT | |||||
| EPT vs. enhanced patient referral ‐ re‐infection in index patients Follow‐up: 1‐12 months | Study population | RR 0.96 (0.6 to 1.53) | 1220 (3 studies) | ⊕⊕⊝⊝ low1,2 | ||
| 92 per 1000 | 88 per 1000 (55 to 140) | |||||
| Moderate | ||||||
| 86 per 1000 | 83 per 1000 (52 to 132) | |||||
| The corresponding risk (and its 95% confidence interval) is based on the assumed risk in the comparison group and the relative effect of the intervention (and its 95% CI). CI: confidence interval; EPT: expedited partner therapy; RR: risk ratio. | ||||||
| GRADE Working Group grades of evidence High quality: Further research is very unlikely to change our confidence in the estimate of effect. Moderate quality: Further research is likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and may change the estimate. Low quality: Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in the estimate of effect and is likely to change the estimate. Very low quality: We are very uncertain about the estimate. | ||||||
1 No details on method of sequence generation in one of the studies. One study had high attrition rate and one study used different methods for outcome assessment. 2 Sample size is high but CI includes appreciable benefit and harms with both relative risk reduction and increase being greater than 25%.