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A Multisite Study of the Prevalence of HIV With Rapid Testing in Mental Health Settings
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Feb 13 2014
Source: Am J Public Health. 104(12):2377-2384. -
Alternative Title:Am J Public Health
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Personal Author:
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Description:Objectives
We estimated HIV prevalence and risk factors among persons receiving mental health treatment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland, January 2009 to August 2011.
Methods
We used a multisite, cross-sectional design stratified by clinical setting. We tested 1061 individuals for HIV in university-based inpatient psychiatric units (n = 287), intensive case-management programs (n = 273), and community mental health centers (n = 501).
Results
Fifty-one individuals (4.8%) were HIV-infected. Confirmed positive HIV tests were 5.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.7%, 9.4%) for inpatient units, 5.1% (95% CI = 3.1%, 8.5%) for intensive case-management programs, and 4.0% (95% CI = 2.6%, 6.1%) for community mental health centers. Characteristics associated with HIV included Black race, homosexual or bisexual identity, and HCV infection.
Conclusions
HIV prevalence for individuals receiving mental health services was more than 4 times as high as in the general population. We found a positive association between psychiatric symptom severity and HIV infection, indicating that engaging persons with mental illness in appropriate mental health treatment may be important to HIV prevention. These findings reinforce recommendations for routine HIV testing in all clinical settings to ensure that HIV-infected persons receiving mental health services are identified and referred to timely infectious disease care.
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Pubmed ID:24524493
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC4133307
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