Sexual health

Program Lead

The HIV/STI Economics and Health Preference Research program of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre undertakes a broad program of economics research with the aim of providing high quality evidence to help ensure sexual health care provision is efficient, effective and appropriate to individual and broader community needs.

To achieve this goal, the team undertakes local and international research focusing on the practical application of economic methodologies to the sexual health context, with a focus on marginalized populations (men who have sex with men, trans and gender diverse individuals, sex workers). Our specialist work includes the following:

  • Infectious disease modelling
  • Health preference research – discrete choice experiments
  • Trial-based economic evaluations
  • Burden of disease studies – evaluating the costs and disease burden, for example quality of life losses

Recent highlights

Ong JJ, Fairley CK, Hocking JS, Turner KME, Booton R, Tse D, Wong WWCW. Preferences for chlamydia testing and management in Hong Kong: a discrete choice experiment. Sexually Transmitted Infections. 2022 Sep;98(6):408-413. doi: 10.1136/sextrans-2021-055182.

Zou Z, Fairley CK, Ong JJ, Hocking J, Canfell K, Ma X, Chow EPF, Xu X, Zhang L, Zhuang G. Domestic HPV vaccine price and economic returns for cervical cancer prevention in China: a cost-effectiveness analysis. Lancet Global Health. 2020 Oct;8(10):e1335-e1344. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30277-1.

Yang F, Zhang TP, Tang W, Ong JJ, Alexander M, Forastiere L, et al. Pay-it-forward gonorrhoea and chlamydia testing among men who have sex with men in China: a randomised controlled trial. Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2020 Aug;20(8):976-982. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30172-9.

Zhang XS, Ong JJ, Macgregor L, Vilaplana TG, Heathcock ST, Mindlin M, Weatherburn P, Hickson F, Edelstein M, Mandal S, Vickerman P. Transmission dynamics of the 2016-18 outbreak of hepatitis A among men who have sex with men in England and cost-effectiveness analysis of vaccination strategies to prevent future outbreaks. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. 2022 Jun 17;19:100426. doi: 10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100426.

Aung ET, Chow EPF, Fairley CK, Phillips TR, Chen MY, Tran J, Maddaford K, Rodriguez ER, Ong JJ. Preferences of men who have sex with men for performing anal self-examination for the detection of anal syphilis in Australia: A discrete choice experiment. The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific. 2022 Feb 23;21:100401. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100401.

Zhang J, Li C, Xu J, Hu Z, Rutstein SE, Tucker JD, Ong JJ, Jiang Y, Geng W, Wright ST, Cohen MS, Shang H, Tang W. Discontinuation, suboptimal adherence, and reinitiation of oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis: a global systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet HIV. 2022 Apr;9(4):e254-e268. doi: 10.1016/S2352-3018(22)00030-3.