Characterization of patients accepting and refusing routine, voluntary HIV antibody testing in public sexually transmitted disease clinics.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

To determine the proportion of HIV-infected sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic patients identified during routine, voluntary HIV counseling and testing and to characterize patients accepting and refusing counseling and testing, we linked data from a blinded HIV seroprevalence survey to data from the HIV counseling and testing program.

GOAL OF THIS STUDY

This study characterizes patients accepting and refusing routine HIV counseling and testing in two public STD clinics.

STUDY DESIGN

A cross-sectional, blinded HIV seroprevalence survey was conducted of 1,232 STD clinic patients offered HIV counseling and testing.

RESULTS

HIV seroprevalence was higher among patients who refused voluntary testing (7.8% versus 3.6%, P = 0.001). Patients who refused testing were more likely to report a prior HIV test (45.6% versus 27.2%; P < 0.001). Among patients reporting a prior HIV test, differences were noted between reported prior results, both positive and negative, and blinded results.

CONCLUSIONS

HIV-infected STD patients may not be detected by routine HIV testing, and self-reported HIV results should be confirmed.