LUSTRUM Accelerated Partner Therapy (APT) Chlamydia Trial V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
LUSTRUM cross-over cluster randomised controlled trial of Accelerated Partner Therapy (APT) to improve partner notification outcomes for heterosexual people with sexually transmitted Chlamydia trachomatis infection
IRAS ID
245000
Contact name
Claudia Estcourt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Central and North West London Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
Public health control of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in the community depends on reducing transmission between sexual partners. One way to do this is through partner notification (PN), the process of identifying, testing, and treating exposed sex partners of a person with an STI. Currently this involves either the patient or a clinic health adviser (HA) contacting these sex partners and advising them to attend a clinic for testing and treatment, an approach that has limited success.
We have developed a new PN option for patients with chlamydia called Accelerated Partner Therapy (APT), which could be offered at sexual health clinics alongside current standard PN. APT aims to improve the uptake of treatment by sex partners, and treat them more quickly, by providing a ‘testing and treatment’ pack to the sex partners, which may be delivered by the patient or by post. This pack is only provided after a HA has carried out a private telephone conversation with the sex partner to check it is medically safe for them to take the chlamydia treatment.
In small preliminary studies, APT appeared to result in faster sex partner treatment and greater numbers of sex partner treated, but this has not yet been tested in a randomised trial. This study will test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of APT compared with routine PN for patients with chlamydia, via:
1. A full-scale trial where 16 sexual health clinics will be randomised to either offer APT alongside standard PN or offer standard PN only.
2. Economic evaluation studies to assess the cost-effectiveness of APT versus standard PN.
3. Studies investigating how APT worked in practice during the trial (process evaluation), so that if APT is rolled out in the future, procedures will be optimised to meet the needs of patients and clinic staff.REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0773
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jul 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion