Never HIV tested: Results of screening data from 12 drug treatment programs in the CTN 0032 HIV Rapid Testing and Counseling study.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends persons between the ages of 13 and 64 be HIV tested. Drug users are at higher risk for HIV infection compared with the general population, but little is known about the proportion of drug treatment patients that have never been tested for HIV infection. This ancillary study used data from protocol CTN-0032 (“HIV Rapid Testing and Counseling”) to investigate past HIV testing histories for over 2400 individuals 18 years and older in 12 community-based drug treatment programs throughout the U.S. Multivariable analysis suggested that African American patients (vs. white patients) were less likely to have never tested for HIV, after controlling for Hispanic ethnicity, gender, age, and injection drug use status. Similarly, injectors (vs. non-injectors) and persons older than 30 were more likely to have been tested for HIV. There was an interaction between race/ethnicity and gender with Hispanic males, non-Hispanic males, and Hispanic females (vs. white females) being more likely to have never been tested for HIV.

Results suggest that strategies are needed to improve the uptake of HIV testing for persons in drug abuse treatment.

Related protocols: CTN-0032