Use of prediction rules in control of sexually transmitted infections: Challenges and chances

摘要

Control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is a public health challenge and includes a variety of diseases such as Chlamydia trachomatis, gonorrhea, syphilis, and HIV with different epidemiology and risk groups. Well-performing clinical prediction rules (CPRs) can potentially support STI control with prioritization of testing.1 We welcome the effort of Falasinnu et al.2 to provide a critical appraisal of existing CPRs in sexual health contexts. They identified 16 studies reporting on CPRs for STIs and gave a broad overview of the methodological quality of the studies (Table 3)2 and of the performance of the CPRs (Table 4).2 Here, we discuss and prioritize the performance measures and quality items that were used with the aim to enable identification of valid CPRs for specific STIs.