Performance of the recommendations of a British advisory group for screening for chlamydia in a sample of women in general practice.

In this study the performance of the guidelines produced by the British Chief Medical Officer's expert advisory group for selective screening for Chlamydia trachomatis was evaluated. The guidelines were applied to a sample of 777 women in general practice in Antwerp, Belgium. The accuracy of the screening/testing recommendations was suboptimal. The model detected 90% of infections but failed to identify a high-risk population; the population to be screened was reduced by only 21%. The focus on young age as the most important determinant for screening was not appropriate. More attention should be paid to risky sexual behaviour.