Advertising sexual health services that provide sexually transmissible infection screening for rural young people - what works and what doesn't.

BACKGROUND

'TESTme' is a sexually transmissible infection (STI) screening service for Victorian young people living in rural areas. We evaluated the effectiveness of advertising for this service over an 11-month pilot period.

METHODS

The advertising that was used included websites, a Facebook page, posters, flyers, business cards, wrist bands and professional development sessions for health nurses that occurred throughout the pilot period. We also used once-off methods including advertisements in newspapers, student diaries and short messages to mobile phones.

RESULTS

Twenty-eight clients had a consultation through TESTme. Twenty found the service through health professionals, six through the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (MSHC) web page, one through the Facebook page and one through the student diary. The total direct costs incurred by the centre for advertising were $20850. The advertising cost per client reached for each advertising method was $26 for health professionals, $80 for the MSHC web advertisement, $1408 for Facebook and $790 for the student diary. Other advertising methods cost $12248 and did not attract any clients.

CONCLUSION

Advertising STI health services for rural young people would be best to focus on referrals from other health services or health care websites.