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Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis

BACKGROUND: HIV self-testing (HIVST) provides young people with a convenient, discreet, and empowering way to know their HIV status. However, there is limited knowledge of young people’s preferences for HIVST services and potential factors that may influence the uptake of HIVST among this population...

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Autores principales: Obiezu-Umeh, Chisom, Gbajabiamila, Titilola, Ezechi, Oliver, Nwaozuru, Ucheoma, Ong, Jason J., Idigbe, Ifeoma, Oladele, David, Musa, Adesola Z., Uzoaru, Florida, Airhihenbuwa, Collins, Tucker, Joseph D., Iwelunmor, Juliet
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792110/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10072-1
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author Obiezu-Umeh, Chisom
Gbajabiamila, Titilola
Ezechi, Oliver
Nwaozuru, Ucheoma
Ong, Jason J.
Idigbe, Ifeoma
Oladele, David
Musa, Adesola Z.
Uzoaru, Florida
Airhihenbuwa, Collins
Tucker, Joseph D.
Iwelunmor, Juliet
author_facet Obiezu-Umeh, Chisom
Gbajabiamila, Titilola
Ezechi, Oliver
Nwaozuru, Ucheoma
Ong, Jason J.
Idigbe, Ifeoma
Oladele, David
Musa, Adesola Z.
Uzoaru, Florida
Airhihenbuwa, Collins
Tucker, Joseph D.
Iwelunmor, Juliet
author_sort Obiezu-Umeh, Chisom
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: HIV self-testing (HIVST) provides young people with a convenient, discreet, and empowering way to know their HIV status. However, there is limited knowledge of young people’s preferences for HIVST services and potential factors that may influence the uptake of HIVST among this population. The purpose of this research was to use qualitative methods to examine HIVST preferences among Nigerian youth. METHODS: Semi-structured in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of young people 14–24 years old were conducted in Lagos, Nigeria. Data were analyzed thematically to identify themes and domains related to preferences and factors influencing the use of HIV self-testing. RESULTS: A total of 65 youth with mean age of 21 years, were interviewed, and the majority were females (56%). Four themes emerged as the most important characteristics that may influence young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing: 1) Cost (i.e. majority of participants noted that they would pay between NGN500 to NGN1,500 naira (USD1.38–USD4.16) for oral HIV self-testing kits); 2) Testing method (i.e. although blood-based sample kits were more popular than oral-based self-testing kits, most preferred the oral-based option due to its perceived benefits and for some, phobia of needles); 3) Access location (i.e. participants suggested they preferred to obtain the HIVST kits from youth-friendly centers, pharmacies, private health facilities, and online stores); and 4) Continuing care and support (i.e. participants highlighted the importance of linkage to care with trained youth health workers for positive or negative test results or toll-free helpline). CONCLUSION: HIV self-testing preferences among Nigerian youth appear to be influenced by several factors including lower cost, less invasive testing method, location of testing, and linkage to care and support post testing. Findings underscore the need to address young people’s HIV self-testing preferences as a foundation for implementing programs and research to increase the uptake of HIVST. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-10072-1.
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spelling pubmed-77921102021-01-11 Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis Obiezu-Umeh, Chisom Gbajabiamila, Titilola Ezechi, Oliver Nwaozuru, Ucheoma Ong, Jason J. Idigbe, Ifeoma Oladele, David Musa, Adesola Z. Uzoaru, Florida Airhihenbuwa, Collins Tucker, Joseph D. Iwelunmor, Juliet BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: HIV self-testing (HIVST) provides young people with a convenient, discreet, and empowering way to know their HIV status. However, there is limited knowledge of young people’s preferences for HIVST services and potential factors that may influence the uptake of HIVST among this population. The purpose of this research was to use qualitative methods to examine HIVST preferences among Nigerian youth. METHODS: Semi-structured in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of young people 14–24 years old were conducted in Lagos, Nigeria. Data were analyzed thematically to identify themes and domains related to preferences and factors influencing the use of HIV self-testing. RESULTS: A total of 65 youth with mean age of 21 years, were interviewed, and the majority were females (56%). Four themes emerged as the most important characteristics that may influence young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing: 1) Cost (i.e. majority of participants noted that they would pay between NGN500 to NGN1,500 naira (USD1.38–USD4.16) for oral HIV self-testing kits); 2) Testing method (i.e. although blood-based sample kits were more popular than oral-based self-testing kits, most preferred the oral-based option due to its perceived benefits and for some, phobia of needles); 3) Access location (i.e. participants suggested they preferred to obtain the HIVST kits from youth-friendly centers, pharmacies, private health facilities, and online stores); and 4) Continuing care and support (i.e. participants highlighted the importance of linkage to care with trained youth health workers for positive or negative test results or toll-free helpline). CONCLUSION: HIV self-testing preferences among Nigerian youth appear to be influenced by several factors including lower cost, less invasive testing method, location of testing, and linkage to care and support post testing. Findings underscore the need to address young people’s HIV self-testing preferences as a foundation for implementing programs and research to increase the uptake of HIVST. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-10072-1. BioMed Central 2021-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7792110/ /pubmed/33413246 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10072-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Obiezu-Umeh, Chisom
Gbajabiamila, Titilola
Ezechi, Oliver
Nwaozuru, Ucheoma
Ong, Jason J.
Idigbe, Ifeoma
Oladele, David
Musa, Adesola Z.
Uzoaru, Florida
Airhihenbuwa, Collins
Tucker, Joseph D.
Iwelunmor, Juliet
Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis
title Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis
title_full Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis
title_fullStr Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis
title_full_unstemmed Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis
title_short Young people’s preferences for HIV self-testing services in Nigeria: a qualitative analysis
title_sort young people’s preferences for hiv self-testing services in nigeria: a qualitative analysis
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7792110/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10072-1
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