Telephone Hotlines take the heat out of discussing STDs

Telephone hotlines are an effective medium for delivering information and allaying fears about STDs and are especially useful for HIV and herpes. Many individuals, and especially women appreciate the opportunity to talk about genital herpes in confidence and may believe that there is still a stigma attached to these diseases. These are the conclusions of an analysis of calls to a national STD hotline set up in Italy in 1997.

The high prevalence of STDs and the desire for privacy when discussing this topic have led to the development of a number of specialist telephone hotlines in the USA and across Europe since the 1970s. Hotlines offer a number of advantages over other channels for delivering health information: they allow anonymity, making it easier to discuss sensitive issues; they allow the caller to retain control over the timing and length of the conversation, and they are accessible to a wide geographical area.

The Italian helpline received 4055 calls during the period 19 February 1997 to 12 December 1999. 3577 of these were analysed in order to determine the profile of callers, to assess their concerns and to identify their sources for the hotline contact details. The split between male/female callers was approximately even (50.2% male compared with 49.8% female). This contrasts with the representation of women at STD clinics where 63% of patients are male. This suggests that for women, lack of confidentiality and fear of humiliation may be barriers to seeking medical assistance in face-to-face situations.

Overall, genital herpes was the second most commonly expressed disease-specific interest after HIV, indicating that there is a high demand for information on this topic. Women called more frequently to discuss the subject of genital herpes (59% of calls) than HIV (32.8% of calls), demonstrating widespread concern about this disease and a clear need to discuss the subject in confidence.

In terms of referral to the hotline number, women mentioned newspapers and magazines as sources of information more frequently than men, who cited TV and radio programmes more frequently. Clearly, publicity in a wide range of media is important to reach the widest possible target audience.

Reference
Boselli F, Chiossi G, Gallinelli A. The Italian STD 'Hot-Line': Making People Aware. Sex Transm Dis. 2003 Sep;30(9):707-712