Assessing the Efficacy of a Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing Intervention for Pregnant Women and Male Partners in Urumqi City, China

Abstract

This study investigated the efficacy of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) in an educated cohort of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Urumqi, China. VCT was given to women and their partners (experimental group) or women alone (control group). Both groups were given pre- and post-intervention questionnaires to assess HIV knowledge and willingness to get HIV testing. Multivariate analysis showed that all women improved significantly in HIV knowledge between baseline and follow-up. Moreover, HIV knowledge was significantly associated with HIV testing willingness. At follow-up, women in the control and experimental groups were 6.8 and 7.9 times more willing to receive HIV testing than at baseline, respectively. VCT seems effective in this cohort of educated pregnant women.