A lot has happened since our last data round-up in October - we celebrated our first birthday in March and we’ve now processed over 10,000 orders. We’re really excited about the potential of the data we’ve gathered. Our research team are hard at work on a randomised control trial that should tell us some more about our users’ behaviour but this is what we’ve been able to learn from the data we’ve looked at so far.
This month saw the launch of SH:24 in four new areas and although it’s too early to share any meaningful data from these places we expect to see some interesting trends. We’ve been excited for a while about the potential of home STI testing in remote areas and will closely monitor how the service is picked up in the new regions. In the mean time, there are some things we’re keeping an eye out for.
32% of users are under 25
In Lambeth and Southwark 32% of our users are under 25 but Shropshire, Herefordshire and Telford and Wrekin all have ageing populations which could impact on the number of younger service users.
Herefordshire’s latest Joint Strategic Needs Assessment suggests that services will need to be brought nearer to a dispersed, ageing population, and that this will incur costs. We’re hoping that local adoption of SH:24 will help to improve access to sexual health services, while bringing cost efficiencies - demonstrating that there are new and exciting solutions to these kinds of problems.
34.8% of our users are BME
In Lambeth and Southwark, 34.8% of our service users are BME compared to 43% of the population in Lambeth and 48% in Southwark. This is dramatically different from our new service areas. In Essex, for example, 5.7% of the population are BME, although the statistic rises to 9.6% amongst school aged children, suggesting that we might expect a higher rate of BME use in the under 25s.
The National Chlamydia Screening Programme averages around a 2.3% positivity rate amongst under 24s compared to 3.5% of SH:24 users. This is predictable given that Lambeth and Southwark have the second and third highest chlamydia rates in the UK after Hackney (stats PHE June 2015).
Data from our website shows that the average time taken to complete the order form is 3 mins and 38 seconds. SH:24 lead designer Chris Howroyd can do it in under a minute.
As well as our great quantitative data, we also get some brilliant individual feedback from users, *glows with pride*. Check it out:
“Sarah thanks so much. This service is excellent and will recommend to others. Thanks for all your thorough advice and assistance.”
“I hope to keep in touch as the information from you was very helpful”
“I order your kit once and everything worked nicely and swiftly. Now doing it again. Thanks for offering such a valuable service!”