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Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth

Purpose: Transgender youth are at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), but their rates of screening are unknown. This study sought to quantify HIV and other STI testing levels and to examine variations in testing levels across three categ...

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Autores principales: Sharma, Akshay, Kahle, Erin, Todd, Kieran, Peitzmeier, Sarah, Stephenson, Rob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6386078/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30805557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2018.0047
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author Sharma, Akshay
Kahle, Erin
Todd, Kieran
Peitzmeier, Sarah
Stephenson, Rob
author_facet Sharma, Akshay
Kahle, Erin
Todd, Kieran
Peitzmeier, Sarah
Stephenson, Rob
author_sort Sharma, Akshay
collection PubMed
description Purpose: Transgender youth are at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), but their rates of screening are unknown. This study sought to quantify HIV and other STI testing levels and to examine variations in testing levels across three categories of gender identity: transgender men, transgender women, and nonbinary individuals. Methods: Between June 2017 and June 2018, 186 transgender youth aged 15–24 years were recruited into a randomized trial of home HIV testing supplemented with telehealth-based counseling. Information on sociodemographics, health care utilization, sexual activity, stress and resilience, and history of HIV and other STI testing was obtained. Multivariable logistic regression models were formulated to identify variations in testing for HIV and other STIs across gender identities. Results: Twenty-eight of 186 participants (15.1%) reported testing for HIV in the past year, and 42 (22.6%) reported testing for other STIs. Transgender women were less likely to have been tested for HIV (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 0.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03–0.78) and other STIs (aOR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.11–0.99), but nonbinary individuals were equally likely to have been tested compared with transgender men. Participants who agreed that their health care provider is knowledgeable about transgender health issues were thrice as likely to have been tested for HIV (aOR: 3.29, 95% CI: 1.36–7.97) and other STIs (aOR: 3.05, 95% CI: 1.40–6.63) compared with those who disagreed. Conclusion: Low levels of testing among transgender youth highlight the exigency of improving gender- and age-appropriate HIV and other STI prevention services. Given that provider knowledge of transgender health issues was strongly associated with testing, training health care providers in transgender-related care could prove beneficial.
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spelling pubmed-63860782019-02-25 Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth Sharma, Akshay Kahle, Erin Todd, Kieran Peitzmeier, Sarah Stephenson, Rob Transgend Health Original Article Purpose: Transgender youth are at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), but their rates of screening are unknown. This study sought to quantify HIV and other STI testing levels and to examine variations in testing levels across three categories of gender identity: transgender men, transgender women, and nonbinary individuals. Methods: Between June 2017 and June 2018, 186 transgender youth aged 15–24 years were recruited into a randomized trial of home HIV testing supplemented with telehealth-based counseling. Information on sociodemographics, health care utilization, sexual activity, stress and resilience, and history of HIV and other STI testing was obtained. Multivariable logistic regression models were formulated to identify variations in testing for HIV and other STIs across gender identities. Results: Twenty-eight of 186 participants (15.1%) reported testing for HIV in the past year, and 42 (22.6%) reported testing for other STIs. Transgender women were less likely to have been tested for HIV (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 0.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.03–0.78) and other STIs (aOR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.11–0.99), but nonbinary individuals were equally likely to have been tested compared with transgender men. Participants who agreed that their health care provider is knowledgeable about transgender health issues were thrice as likely to have been tested for HIV (aOR: 3.29, 95% CI: 1.36–7.97) and other STIs (aOR: 3.05, 95% CI: 1.40–6.63) compared with those who disagreed. Conclusion: Low levels of testing among transgender youth highlight the exigency of improving gender- and age-appropriate HIV and other STI prevention services. Given that provider knowledge of transgender health issues was strongly associated with testing, training health care providers in transgender-related care could prove beneficial. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2019-02-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6386078/ /pubmed/30805557 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2018.0047 Text en © Akshay Sharma et al. 2019; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Sharma, Akshay
Kahle, Erin
Todd, Kieran
Peitzmeier, Sarah
Stephenson, Rob
Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth
title Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth
title_full Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth
title_fullStr Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth
title_full_unstemmed Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth
title_short Variations in Testing for HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections Across Gender Identity Among Transgender Youth
title_sort variations in testing for hiv and other sexually transmitted infections across gender identity among transgender youth
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6386078/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30805557
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2018.0047
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