Integrating Routine HIV Screening Into a Primary Care Setting in Rural North Carolina

Abstract

African Americans living in the southern United States are disproportionately affected by HIV infection. Identifying and treating those who are infected is an important strategy for reducing HIV transmission. A model for integrating rapid HIV screening into community health centers was modified and used to guide implementation of a testing program in a primary care setting in a small North Carolina town serving a rural African American population. Anonymous surveys were completed by 138 adults who were offered an HIV test; of the 100 (72%) who accepted an HIV test, 61% were female and 89.9% were African American. Among those African American survey respondents who accepted an offer of testing, 58% were women. The most common reason for declining an HIV test was lack of perceived risk; younger patients were more likely to get tested. Implementation of the testing model posed challenges with time, data collection, and clinic flow.

The Stigma of Testing Intentions Revisited: The Exonerating Effects of Favorable Test Results

“…Unexpectedly, male participants did not seem to utilize testing information when making their moral judgments about another male. Although unexpected, this finding adds to the mounting evidence of gender differences in HIV testing behavior (Harmon et al., ; Joseph et al., ; Sambisa et al., ). In Study 2, participants (both male and female) rated the female character Jane D. as most moral when she tested negative, followed by the other two conditions.…”

“…Although unexpected in the current study, gender differences in HIV testing behavior have emerged in other research. For example, women are more likely than men to accept an HIV test (Harmon, Collins‐Ogle, Bartlett, Thompson, & Barroso, ; Sambisa, Curtis, & Mishra, ) and get repeatedly tested (Joseph et al., ). These behavioral differences suggest that men and women may perceive the act of getting tested for HIV quite differently.…”

The Continuum of HIV Care in Rural Communities in the United States and Canada: What Is Known and Future Research Directions

“…During a 2-month period in 2012, 100 of the 138 (72%) patients offered an HIV test agreed to be tested. 54 …”

Barriers and Facilitators toward HIV Testing and Health Perceptions among African-American Men Who Have Sex with Women at a South Side Chicago Community Health Center: A Pilot Study

“…Its mission is “to increase the health awareness of Black men by providing health education with a cultural and gender-specific perspective” (15). Organizations like Project Brotherhood have been implemented and studied in other locations and have been successful in improving HIV testing rates in rural community health clinics (16), but there are no clear data on the role of small community centers in an urban setting (17). Project Brotherhood is unique in that it has always served and been under the leadership of AA men that anchored within its service communities.…”