Background

Pooled testing for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) may be a cost-saving solution to increase screening by simplifying testing procedures and reducing resource burdens. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the performance of pooled 3-anatomic-site testing (pharyngeal, rectal, and urogenital sites) for CT and NG in comparison with single-anatomic-site testing.

Methods

We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science to identify original evaluation studies of the performance of pooled testing for CT and NG infections and identified 14 studies for inclusion. Each study was systematically evaluated for bias. We conducted bivariate fixed-effects and random-effects meta-analyses using a full Bayesian method of the positive percent agreement and negative percent agreement.

Results

The combined positive percent agreement for CT was 93.11% (95% confidence interval [CI], 91.51%-94.55%), and the negative percent agreement was 99.44% (95% CI, 99.18%-99.65%). For NG, the combined positive percent agreement was 93.80% (95% CI, 90.26%-96.61%), and the negative percent agreement was 99.73% (95% CI, 99.30%-99.97%).

Conclusions

We found that pooled 3-anatomic-site tests performed similarly to single-anatomic-site tests for the detection of CT and NG. The pooled 3-anatomic-site tests have the added potential benefit of reduced cost and resource requirement, which could lead to improved testing access and screening uptake.