American journal of preventive medicine
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allocates funds annually to jurisdictions nationwide for sexually transmitted infection prevention activities. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of federal sexually transmitted infection prevention funding for reducing rates of reported sexually transmitted infections. ⋯ The significant inverse associations between federal sexually transmitted infection prevention funding and rates of reported chlamydia and gonorrhea suggest that federally funded sexually transmitted infection prevention activities have a discernable effect on reducing the burden of sexually transmitted infections. The reported sexually transmitted infection rate in a given year depends more on prevention funding in previous years than on prevention funding in the current year, demonstrating the importance of accounting for lagged funding effects.