Acceptability of Couples’ Voluntary HIV Testing Among HIV-infected Patients in Care and Their HIV-negative Partners in the United States

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Open AIDS J
• Personal Author:
  Wall, Kristin M. ; Canary, Lauren ; Workowski, Kimberly ; Lockard, Annie ; Jones, Jeb ; Sullivan, Patrick ; Hills, Katherine ; Fofana, Kadija ; Stephenson, Rob ; Allen, Susan
• Description:
  Introduction:
  
  Couples’ voluntary HIV counseling and testing (CHTC) is an HIV risk reduction strategy not widely available in the US.
  
  Methods:
  
  We assessed willingness to participate in CHTC among US HIV-infected clinic patients via tablet-based survey and among HIV-negative persons with HIV-infected partners in care via mixed-method phone interviews.
  
  Results:
  
  Most of the N=64 HIV-infected partners surveyed were men (89%), on antiretroviral treatment (ART) (92%), and many self-identified homosexual (62%). We observed high levels of willingness to participate in CHTC (64%) among HIV-infected partners. Reasons for not wanting to participate included perceived lack of need (26%), desire to self-disclose their status (26%), and fear of being asked sensitive questions with their partner present (17%). HIV-infected partners were interested in discussing ART (48%), other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (44%), and relationship agreements like monogamy (31%) during CHTC sessions. All N=15 HIV-negative partners interviewed were men, most identified as homosexual (73%), and about half (54%) reported consistent condom use with HIV-infected partners. We observed high levels of willingness to participate in CHTC (87%) among HIV-negative partners, who were also interested in discussing ART (47%), other STIs (47%), mental health services (40%), and relationship agreements (33%). Most negative partners (93%) indicated that they believed their HIV-infected partner was virally suppressed, but in the event that they were not, many (73%) were willing to take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
  
  Conclusion:
  
  These results indicate that CHTC for serodiscordant couples is acceptable and should emphasize aspects most pertinent to these couples, such as discussion of ART/PrEP, STIs, and relationship agreements.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Acceptability Article Combination Prevention Couples’ Voluntary HIV Counseling And Testing Discordant Couples HIV Prevention
• Source:
  Open AIDS J. 2016; 10:1-13.
• Pubmed ID:
  27014393
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4780512
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:af5d882fc90f1ceb2bb045e5c07194bbf1ec9265ef9b8ec05d3084ae253ba013
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/38855/cdc_38855_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 297.12 KB ]