Testing takes place in community contraceptive clinics and some further education colleges and more recently through postal testing kits and pharmacies.
Other testing sites included pharmacies, abortion services, outreach, young persons' services, schools and postal testing (Tina Sharp, NCSP Chlamydia Coordinator, personal communication).
Postal testing kits, obtained via the Internet are acceptable [ 19], but direct mailing of kits appear to perform better than test-request kits [ 20].
A possible explanation for this could be that men prefer testing in non-clinical settings such as postal testing kits and internet based screening [ 19].
If contact was made (patient answered or called back), they were offered a choice of postal testing kit or advised to attend GUM clinic or GP.
Self-taken specimens were obtained using a postal testing kit (PTK) for women who defaulted from attending their first screening appointment in 2008.
We removed post code information to preserve anonymity, but these data may be useful in assessing whether distance from clinic predicts preference for postal testing.
Estimates of prevalence weighted by deprivation, and for the postal testing kit, also by reminder status and specimen type were calculated for each HPV type.
A sample (n = 709) from women who had defaulted from screening was also made available for HPV testing through the use of postal testing kits (either urine samples (n = 378) or self-taken swabs (n = 331)).
