Charlebois ED, Morin SD, Maiorana A, McLaughlin M, Gaffney S, Rutherford GW; International Conference on AIDS (15th : 2004 : Bangkok, Thailand).

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16; 15: abstract no. MoPeE4105.

University of California, San Francisco, AIDS Policy Research Center, San Francisco, United States

Background: Surveillance of the US HIV epidemic is shifting from AIDS-case reporting to HIV-infection reporting. Confidentiality concerns and a potential deterrent effect on HIV testing make name-based HIV-infection reporting controversial. Several alternatives to name-based HIV-infection reporting exist. The objective of this study was to evaluate in HIV test takers the acceptability and preferences among the three major types of US HIV-infection reporting: Name, Name-to-Code, and Non-Name Code. Methods: Interviewer administered exit surveys, with spoken scripts and matching printed materials clearly outlining the three HIV reporting options, were conducted among HIV test takers immediately following appointments for pre-test HIV counseling and blood collection. Subjects were 208 HIV test takers at 14 publicly funded HIV confidential and anonymous testing sites in four California counties. Results: Overall, significantly more testers (67%) reported a Non-Name Code as the most acce ptable reporting system, compared to Name-to-Code (19%) and Name-based HIV reporting (12%) (p<.0001). Significant independent predictors of a preference for coded HIV reporting were female gender (OR=6.2, 95% CI:1.7-22, p=.006), men-who-have-sex-with-men (OR=5.7,95% CI:1.2-26), and just having taken an anonymous HIV test (OR=3.6, 95% CI:1.4-9.3,p=.009). Were California to adopt name-based HIV-infection reporting, significantly fewer individuals report being likely to have a confidential HIV test in the next 12 months than report being likely to have an anonymous HIV test (51% likely confidential vs. 76% likely anonymous, p<.0001). Conclusions: Our analysis documents strong support for a non-name code HIV-infection reporting system among HIV test takers and indicates a high potential for a shift away from confidential testing towards anonymous testing under a scenario of name-based HIV-infection reporting. This shift is of concern because confidential HIV testing is the basis of US HIV surveill ance systems.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
• Anonymous Testing
• California
• Case-Control Studies
• Confidentiality
• Counseling
• Data Collection
• Female
• HIV Infections
• HIV Seropositivity
• Humans
• Male
• Names
• Public Health Administration
• Risk Management
• Voluntary Programs
• economics
• organization & administration

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0036172

UI: 102280388

From Meeting Abstracts