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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of sexually active female adolescents and young women who get screened for chlamydia — STI‑01 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS), NCQA

Baseline: 54.9 percent of sexually active females aged 16 to 24 years enrolled in Medicaid and commercial health plans were screened for chlamydial infections, as reported in 2018

Target: 76.5 percent

Numerator
Number of females aged 16 to 24 years who were identified as eligible in the denominator and who had at least 1 test for chlamydia during the measurement year.
Denominator
Number of females aged 16 to 24 years who were identified as sexually active and who had no more than 1 gap in enrollment of up to 45 days during the measurement year in Medicaid and commercial health plans.
Target-setting method
Maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws
Target-setting method justification
The target was selected to align with the 2030 target presented in the STI National Strategic Plan (STI Plan) for the indicator "Increase chlamydia screening in sexually active females aged 16–24 years by 13% by 2025 and 30% by 2030." The STI Plan Indicators subcommittee, in consultation with HHS leadership, set quantitative targets to reduce the rising rates of STIs as a public health threat by 2030. For health services indicators (e.g., chlamydia screening), the rate of improvement declines the closer you get to the target. Therefore, the targets in the final years reflect this expected slowdown in the rate of improvement.

Methodology

Methodology notes

HEDIS is a widely-used set of performance measures in the managed-care industry, developed and maintained by National Committee for Quality Assurance. Annual data on chlamydia screening rates, measured by the proportion of sexually active women aged 16-24 who received at least one chlamydia test in the measurement year, have been collected in HEDIS since 2000. Screening rates for commercial health insurance plans became available in 2000 and screening rates for Medicaid health plans became available in 2001.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objectives in that it is a composite of four objectives that tracked sexually active females who were screened for genital Chlamydia during the measurement year: objectives STD-3.1 and STD 3.2, which tracked females aged 16 to 20 years and 21 to 24 years, respectively, who were enrolled in Medicaid plans; and, objectives STD-4.1 and 4.2, which tracked females aged 16 to 20 years and 21 to 24 years, respectively, who were enrolled in commercial health insurance plans. The phrase "during the measurement year" in not included in the Healthy People 2030 objective statement.
Revision History
  • Revised. 

    The baseline was updated from 2017 to 2018 and the target was revised from projection to maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies or laws in order to align the objective with the STI National Strategic Plan (STI Plan) in 2021.
  • Revised. 

    In 2024, the original baseline was revised from 55.8 to 54.9 percent due to updates to the numerators and denominators used in rate calculations. There is some lag in reporting new STI cases and the population estimates used in rate calculations. Therefore, the rates are re-adjusted annually once the final case counts and population values are available. In some cases, the final values may vary slightly from those initially reported.