TY - JOUR
T1 - South Africans with recent pregnancy rarely know partner's HIV serostatus
T2 - Implications for serodiscordant couples interventions
AU - Matthews, Lynn T.
AU - Moore, Lizzie
AU - Crankshaw, Tamaryn L.
AU - Milford, Cecilia
AU - Mosery, Fortunate N.
AU - Greener, Ross
AU - Psaros, Christina
AU - Safren, Steven A.
AU - Bangsberg, David R.
AU - Smit, Jennifer A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Matthews et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
PY - 2014/8/14
Y1 - 2014/8/14
N2 - Background: Implementation of safer conception strategies requires knowledge of partner HIV-serostatus. We recruited women and men in a high HIV-prevalence setting for a study to assess periconception risk behavior among individuals reporting HIV-serodiscordant partnerships. We report screening data from that study with the objective of estimating the proportion of individuals who are aware that they are in an HIV-serodiscordant relationship at the time of conception.Methods. We screened women and men attending antenatal and antiretroviral clinics in Durban, South Africa for enrollment in a study of periconception risk behavior among individuals with serodiscordant partners. Screening questionnaires assessed for study eligibility including age 18-45 years (for women) or at least 18 years of age (for men), pregnancy in past year (women) or partner pregnancy in the past 3 years (men), HIV status of partner for recent pregnancy, participant's HIV status, and infected partner's HIV status having been known before the referent pregnancy.Results: Among 2620 women screened, 2344 (90%) met age and pregnancy criteria and knew who fathered the referent pregnancy. Among those women, 963 (41%) did not know the pregnancy partner's HIV serostatus at time of screening. Only 92 (4%) reported knowing of a serodiscordant partnership prior to pregnancy. Among 1166 men screened, 225 (19%) met age and pregnancy criteria. Among those men, 71 (32%) did not know the pregnancy partner's HIV status and only 30 (13%) reported knowing of a serodiscordant partnership prior to pregnancy.Conclusions: In an HIV-endemic setting, awareness of partner HIV serostatus is rare. Innovative strategies to increase HIV testing and disclosure are required to facilitate HIV prevention interventions for serodiscordant couples.
AB - Background: Implementation of safer conception strategies requires knowledge of partner HIV-serostatus. We recruited women and men in a high HIV-prevalence setting for a study to assess periconception risk behavior among individuals reporting HIV-serodiscordant partnerships. We report screening data from that study with the objective of estimating the proportion of individuals who are aware that they are in an HIV-serodiscordant relationship at the time of conception.Methods. We screened women and men attending antenatal and antiretroviral clinics in Durban, South Africa for enrollment in a study of periconception risk behavior among individuals with serodiscordant partners. Screening questionnaires assessed for study eligibility including age 18-45 years (for women) or at least 18 years of age (for men), pregnancy in past year (women) or partner pregnancy in the past 3 years (men), HIV status of partner for recent pregnancy, participant's HIV status, and infected partner's HIV status having been known before the referent pregnancy.Results: Among 2620 women screened, 2344 (90%) met age and pregnancy criteria and knew who fathered the referent pregnancy. Among those women, 963 (41%) did not know the pregnancy partner's HIV serostatus at time of screening. Only 92 (4%) reported knowing of a serodiscordant partnership prior to pregnancy. Among 1166 men screened, 225 (19%) met age and pregnancy criteria. Among those men, 71 (32%) did not know the pregnancy partner's HIV status and only 30 (13%) reported knowing of a serodiscordant partnership prior to pregnancy.Conclusions: In an HIV-endemic setting, awareness of partner HIV serostatus is rare. Innovative strategies to increase HIV testing and disclosure are required to facilitate HIV prevention interventions for serodiscordant couples.
KW - HIV prevention
KW - HIV serodiscordant couples
KW - HIV serostatus disclosure
KW - Safer conception
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U2 - 10.1186/1471-2458-14-843
DO - 10.1186/1471-2458-14-843
M3 - Article
C2 - 25124267
AN - SCOPUS:84907915424
SN - 1471-2458
VL - 14
JO - BMC public health
JF - BMC public health
IS - 1
M1 - 843
ER -