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1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area
BACKGROUND: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Miami-Dade County has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the Nation. So far, a large focus of public health initiatives has been spreading awareness of HIV testing locations, but this form of voluntary testing relies on i...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6809412/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1494 |
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author | Ocon, Hampton Sabbag, Samir |
author_facet | Ocon, Hampton Sabbag, Samir |
author_sort | Ocon, Hampton |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Miami-Dade County has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the Nation. So far, a large focus of public health initiatives has been spreading awareness of HIV testing locations, but this form of voluntary testing relies on individuals realizing that they are at risk of HIV infection in the first place. Consequently, a major obstacle to encouraging young men-who-have-sex-with-men (YMSM) to test themselves for HIV is their own self-perceived risk of having an undetected infection. METHODS: In an effort to better understand the discordance between high-risk sexual behavior and HIV testing among this high-risk population, YMSM (18–24) were surveyed through smartphone applications that facilitate sexual encounters in the Miami-Dade area (eg Grindr, Scruff). Users were asked about their history of condomless anal intercourse (CAI), their HIV testing habits, and whether or not they believe it possible that they are currently infected with HIV. An analysis of the relationship between CAI and self-perception of possible HIV infection was performed using Cochran-Mantel–Haenszel testing. RESULTS: Of the 843 eligible responses, 667 reported a history of voluntary HIV testing while 176 had never voluntarily tested. 726 respondents reported a history of CAI and 131 of these have never voluntarily tested. Of the 843 total participants, 1.6% were in the highest HIV risk group, which is those who have engaged in CAI with an exchange/casual partner, have never voluntarily tested for HIV, and have no self-perceived risk of being currently infected. According to data analysis, YMSM who have engaged in CAI but have never been tested for HIV were not more likely to have a self-perceived possibility of infection when compared with those who have voluntarily tested (P < 0.595). CONCLUSION: This suggests that many high-risk YMSM are not voluntarily testing themselves for HIV not because they do not have access to testing, but rather because they do not perceive themselves as being possibly infected in the first place. Therefore, in addition to increasing access to HIV testing, new public health initiatives must be designed to facilitate YMSM understanding their own personal HIV risk. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6809412 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-68094122019-10-28 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area Ocon, Hampton Sabbag, Samir Open Forum Infect Dis Abstracts BACKGROUND: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Miami-Dade County has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the Nation. So far, a large focus of public health initiatives has been spreading awareness of HIV testing locations, but this form of voluntary testing relies on individuals realizing that they are at risk of HIV infection in the first place. Consequently, a major obstacle to encouraging young men-who-have-sex-with-men (YMSM) to test themselves for HIV is their own self-perceived risk of having an undetected infection. METHODS: In an effort to better understand the discordance between high-risk sexual behavior and HIV testing among this high-risk population, YMSM (18–24) were surveyed through smartphone applications that facilitate sexual encounters in the Miami-Dade area (eg Grindr, Scruff). Users were asked about their history of condomless anal intercourse (CAI), their HIV testing habits, and whether or not they believe it possible that they are currently infected with HIV. An analysis of the relationship between CAI and self-perception of possible HIV infection was performed using Cochran-Mantel–Haenszel testing. RESULTS: Of the 843 eligible responses, 667 reported a history of voluntary HIV testing while 176 had never voluntarily tested. 726 respondents reported a history of CAI and 131 of these have never voluntarily tested. Of the 843 total participants, 1.6% were in the highest HIV risk group, which is those who have engaged in CAI with an exchange/casual partner, have never voluntarily tested for HIV, and have no self-perceived risk of being currently infected. According to data analysis, YMSM who have engaged in CAI but have never been tested for HIV were not more likely to have a self-perceived possibility of infection when compared with those who have voluntarily tested (P < 0.595). CONCLUSION: This suggests that many high-risk YMSM are not voluntarily testing themselves for HIV not because they do not have access to testing, but rather because they do not perceive themselves as being possibly infected in the first place. Therefore, in addition to increasing access to HIV testing, new public health initiatives must be designed to facilitate YMSM understanding their own personal HIV risk. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures. Oxford University Press 2019-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6809412/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1494 Text en © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
spellingShingle | Abstracts Ocon, Hampton Sabbag, Samir 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area |
title | 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area |
title_full | 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area |
title_fullStr | 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area |
title_full_unstemmed | 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area |
title_short | 1630. Voluntary HIV Testing and Self-Realization of Risk of HIV Infection Among Young Men-Who-Have-Sex-with-Men in the Miami-Dade Area |
title_sort | 1630. voluntary hiv testing and self-realization of risk of hiv infection among young men-who-have-sex-with-men in the miami-dade area |
topic | Abstracts |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6809412/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz360.1494 |
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