Failure to Return for HIV Test Results: A Pilot Study of Three Community Testing Sites

Abstract

Findings highlight the need for interventions to improve the return rate for HIV results.

Provision of HIV Counseling and Testing Services at Five Community-Based Organizations Among Young Men of Color Who Have Sex with Men

“…Encouraging clients to return for their HIV test results has been historically challenging [16][17][18]. Potential strategies such as offering low-cost incentives, encouraging clients to select confidential testing over anonymous testing, and setting specific follow-up appointments while maintaining flexibility regarding locations and times may help increase the provision of results [19][20][21]. Furthermore, RotheramBorus et al [22] have suggested revising the national HIV rapid testing algorithm to allow the use of two rapid tests to establish an HIV diagnosis, which could ameliorate the loss to follow-up of clients who test positive.…”

“…CDC funded 27 CBOs between 2001 and 2006 to deliver HIV prevention interventions to young (aged 13-24) MSM of color, their sex partners, and transgendered youth (aged [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Interventions included health education and riskreduction, outreach, and HIV counseling and testing.…”

“…CDC provided additional funding to five of the 27 CBOs to collect and submit monthly data on all HIV tests provided from August 2005 through July 2006. The current analysis includes data on tests provided to young MSM of color aged [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Although CBOs were funded to target MSM of color aged 13-24, we included those aged [25][26][27][28][29] in this analysis because recent data suggest that MSM aged 23-29 have a significantly higher rate of unrecognized HIV infection than those aged 15-22 [4].…”

The Prevalence and Correlates of Receiving Confirmatory HIV Test Results Among Newly Diagnosed HIV-Positive Individuals at a Community-Based Testing Center

“…There is also a need to better understand the reasons people fail to return for confirmatory test results. With some exceptions (Grusky, Roberts, & Swanson, 2007;Sullivan et al, 2004), few studies have examined reasons for not returning for results.…”

Assessment of Rapid Tests for Detection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Specific Antibodies in Recently Infected Individuals

“…Such limitations include the window periods associated with antibody-based testing (the time between infection and the generation of detectable antibodies in the blood) and the limited sensitivities of certain antibody tests (2,3,11,22). Moreover, the turnaround time associated with the logistics of laboratory-based testing can result in patients not obtaining their test results (6,7,9,17,20). Point-ofcare testing (rapid testing) for HIV infection seeks to broaden the capacity of the public health and medical communities to identify and to inform infected individuals.…”