Reasons for choosing online
| Rapid access from home | Users valued ‘a quick fix’ and to get the problem sorted quickly that ‘you can do it kind of at a time and place and manner that’s comfortable for you’. | ‘I think it’s a lot better because you’re sort of in your own space, which is more comforting than like being in a clinic room with a stranger who is going to tell you this’. Participant 3, female, reassured |
| Difficulty accessing alternatives | Difficulty getting an appointment, not being able to or preferring not to take time of work or travel to get to a clinic | ‘I mean you can do it whenever you like. So you can do it after work or at the weekend, whatever. So when I tried to go to [clinic], I had to take a morning off work. And it was kind of for nothing. So that was a bit like irritating, I guess. Whereas when I did, when I then went to SH:24, it was just, I think I did it after work one day. So it’s just a lot easier and convenient’. Participant 1, female, treated for warts |
| More discreet | Feeling that an online service would be more discreet, less shameful and less judgmental and that they could be more honest | ‘I don’t want to have to tell my friends where I’m going or tell work where I’m going’. Participant 5, female, treated for herpes ‘Yeah, you can be more honest. Cos you know like, you go to an STI clinic and you can get asked questions, and I know the majority of my friends will never tell the truth’. Participant 9, female, treated for herpes |
STI, sexually transmitted infection.