Patient characteristics and availability of onsite non-rapid and rapid HIV testing in US substance use disorder treatment programs.

Racial and ethnic minorities and injection drug users (IDUs) are at increased risk of HIV infection. However, the associations between these patient characteristics and the availability of onsite HIV testing in substance use disorder treatment programs are unknown. This paper explored patient caseload characteristics associated with the availability of HIV testing in a sample of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs affiliated with the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN). The authors found that almost half of programs (48%) provided onsite HIV testing for SUD patients, which is nearly double the rates reported by privately funded treatment programs and programs responding to the most recent National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services. About 52% of CTN-affiliated programs offering onsite HIV testing services used a rapid test. Results also showed positive associations between the percentages of African American, Hispanic, and injection drug-using patients and the odds of offering non-rapid onsite HIV testing versus no onsite testing at all.

Conclusions: This finding is promising and suggests that rapid HIV testing may be a feasible innovation that can be successfully adopted by SUD treatment programs. The study also suggests that many programs are responding well to the needs of at-risk populations. Treatment programs and their patients may benefit from greater adoption of rapid testing which is less costly and better ensures that patients receive their results.