The Prevalence of Annual HIV Testing among men who have sex with men within the United States and its Association with HIV Testing Location Open Access
Rajasekar, Ganesh (Spring 2018)
Abstract
Men who have sex with men (MSM) are recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as being an at-risk population for acquiring HIV infections, with an estimated 15% of undiagnosed HIV infections among this population as of 2015. To counteract the prevalence of these undiagnosed cases, annual HIV testing is encouraged as per the recommendations of the CDC. However, even though previous studies have observed associations between HIV testing frequency and well-established demographic correlates such as race and income, nothing is known about how the locations where MSM are tested for HIV are associated with HIV testing frequency. To measure the association between HIV testing location and HIV testing frequency, we used data from 6436 participants from the American Men’s Internet Survey (AMIS) from 2016 and employed logistic regression models with predicted margins. Most of the participants were tested at private doctor’s offices (45.9%) and nearly two-thirds of participants were tested annually for HIV (62.7%). We found significant associations between testing frequency and all examined variables except for income, with the strongest association being between provider disclosure and HIV testing frequency (γ = 0.43, χ2 (1) = 207.25, p<0.0001). There was significantly higher prevalence (p < 0.001) of MSM testing annually for HIV at private doctor’s offices than at any other location (e.g. emergency rooms, correctional facilities, HIV counseling and testing sites, at-home testing, outreach testing). Based on these results, there is strong evidence of disparities in HIV testing frequency by testing location, especially among locations that are not private doctor’s offices. To lessen these disparities, we recommend interventions aimed at increasing HIV testing frequency at these alternative testing locations.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents Introduction...............................1 Methods....................................4 Participants and Procedures.....4 Measures...............................5 Data Analyses........................6 Results.....................................7 Discussion................................12 Conclusions..............................17 References...............................17
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