Human Immunodeficiency Virus Testing Rates Research Articles

Rates of and factors associated with self-reported prior HIV testing among adult medical patients in an inner city emergency department in the Bronx, New York City.

We studied the rates of and factors associated with self-reported prior human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing in adult patients visiting an emergency department (ED) in the Bronx, New York City. A total of 1,744 consecutive noncritical adult medical emergency patients responded to a standardized interview administered by ED physicians. The interview included questions pertaining to demographic characteristics, prior HIV testing, and HIV risk behaviors. On multivariate analysis, female gender, younger age, history of weight loss, injecting drug use (IDU), syphilis, and genital herpes were all associated with increased reported prior testing rates. Race (i.e., black race) was an independent predictor of increased rates among male subjects; comparatively low rates were reported by patients with a first language other than English, patients lacking medical insurance, and highly sexually active, nonblack men. Increased HIV testing rates were reported by subjects with recognized HIV risk behaviors in a New York City ED population; however, substantial proportions of subjects at risk had not been tested. Programs of HIV testing and counseling need to include older, uninsured, and non-English-speaking segments of the population who engage in high-risk behaviors.

The interactive seminar: an educational approach for voluntary HIV testing in a drug dependence treatment unit.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a pandemic disease with no known cure and limited effective strategies for prevention and control. It is one of the most devastating illnesses in contemporary society, and since 1982, certain populations, including intravenous drug users (IVDU), have been targeted as being at high risk for AIDS. Education is one strategy that seeks to address AIDS and the needs of IVDU. This retrospective study focused on the use of the interactive seminar or small-group discussion as an educational method to identify and describe its effect on the rate of voluntary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing among male subjects in a drug dependence treatment unit (DDTU). The subjects, 25 to 62 years old, were in treatment at a Medical Center for Veterans that was located in an urban environment. The medical records of 118 patients admitted to the unit during the year before and the year after the introduction of an HIV interactive seminar were studied. Analysis of data showed that drug users who participated in the interactive seminar had a higher rate of voluntary HIV testing than did those who did not participate; IVDU who participated in the interactive seminar had a higher rate of voluntary HIV testing than IVDU who did not participate in the seminar; drug users who completed the detoxification treatment and participated in the interactive seminar had a higher rate of voluntary HIV testing than did those who did not participate in the interactive seminar.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Testing for HIV in the Public and Private Sectors—Oregon, 1988-1991

Counseling and testing persons for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a key component of the public health strategy for reducing transmission of HIV in the United States (1,2). In 1991, the federal government allocated $100 million to state and local health agencies to provide counseling and testing programs in public clinics for at-risk persons, including persons who may not otherwise use public health services. However, the relative contribution of HIV-testing in public clinics to HIV testing in the private sector is unknown. To compare HIV testing in Oregon public clinics to overall HIV testing, the Health Division (HD) of the Oregon Department of Human Resources, in cooperation with CDC, reviewed data collected from September 1, 1988, through August 31, 1991, on public and private HIV testing in Oregon. This report summarizes findings for HIV testing rates and assesses the importance of publicly funded testing in identifying HIV-seropositive persons.