The aim of the study was to
understand HIV testing
patterns needed to improve access to early HIV diagnosis,
and to investigate the spread of the virus in different populations. We
examined prior testing history of individuals presenting for an HIV test
across all 30 voluntary testing and counselling sites in Poland, 2008-2010 to
determine factors associated with the testing rate using zero-truncated Poisson
regression.
Of 2397 persons presenting for an HIV test,
25 (1%) were HIV positive
and 470 (19.6%) were repeat testers. The proportion of repeat testers was
higher among men who have sex with men (MSM) at 37% (90/246), and people who
inject drugs (PWID) at 32% (21/65). Higher testing rate was independently
associated with exposure category (testing rate ratio, RR for MSM = 2.0, 95% CI
1.6-2.6, and 1.6, 0.9-2.6 for PWID), >5 sex partners (1.9, 1.4-2.7),
high-risk partner (1.3, 1.1-1.6), urban residence (2.1, 1.3-3.5) and higher
education attainment (1.1, 1.0-1.5). Inconsistent condom use with casual
partners and sex under the influence of alcohol were associated with lower
testing rates.
There is a need to increase HIV testing
uptake in Poland, especially among the rural population. Despite testing rates
being higher among populations with higher risk of exposure to HIV (MSM
and PWID), they still remain low, indicating the existence of barriers to
testing.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/gMKB4n
By:
- 1 Department of Epidemiology , National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene , Chocimska 24, Warsaw , Poland.
- 2 MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London , Aviation House 125 Kingsway, London , UK.
- 3 National AIDS Centre , ul. Samsonowska 1, Warsaw , Poland.
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