Pregnant women's decisions on antenatal HIV screening in Hong Kong

Early uptake of HIV counseling and testing among pregnant women at different levels of health facilities--experiences from a community-based study in Northern Vietnam

BACKGROUND

HIV counselling and testing for pregnant women is a key factor for successful prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. Women's access to testing can be improved by scaling up the distribution of this service at all levels of health facilities. However, this strategy will only be effective if pregnant women are tested early and provided enough counselling.

OBJECTIVE

To assess early uptake of HIV testing and the provision of HIV counselling among pregnant women who attend antenatal care at primary and higher level health facilities.

METHODS

A community based study was conducted among 1108 nursing mothers. Data was collected during interviews using a structured questionnaire focused on socio-economic background, reproductive history, experience with antenatal HIV counselling and testing as well as types of health facility providing the services.

RESULTS

In all 91.0% of the women interviewed had attended antenatal care and 90.3% had been tested for HIV during their most recent pregnancy. Women who had their first antenatal checkup at primary health facilities were significantly more likely to be tested before 34 weeks of gestation (OR = 43.2, CI: 18.9-98.1). The reported HIV counselling provision was also higher at primary health facilities, where women in comparison with women attending higher level health facilities were nearly three or and four times more likely to receive pre-test (OR = 2.7; CI:2.1-3.5) and post-test counseling (OR = 4.0; CI: 2.3-6.8).

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that antenatal HIV counseling and testing can be scaled up to primary heath facilities and that such scaling up may enhance early uptake of testing and provision of counseling.

Attitudes About Prenatal Hiv Testing in Turkey

The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of Turkish pregnant women and antenatal health care providers towards prenatal HIV testing. A self-administered questionnaire was used. The relationships between the different groups' knowledge and attitudes were analysed by using the chi-squared statistic. A total of 494 pregnant women and 181 care providers participated. Forty-four per cent of the pregnant women thought that prenatal HIV testing should be mandatory, and 84% of the health care providers thought it should be performed routinely or be mandatory. The majority of the pregnant women (74%) and half of the care providers agreed that the test results should be disclosed first to the pregnant woman. The study results also revealed that most of the prenatal care providers would not protect pregnant women's autonomy and privacy, contrary to the pregnant women's own preferences. It is essential to establish national prenatal HIV testing policies in order to prevent unethical practices and ensure satisfaction for pregnant women and health care providers.

Assessing the efficacy of a voluntary HIV counseling and testing intervention for pregnant women and male partners in Urumqi City, China

This study investigated the efficacy of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) in an educated cohort of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Urumqi, China. VCT was given to women and their partners (experimental group) or women alone (control group). Both groups were given pre- and post-intervention questionnaires to assess HIV knowledge and willingness to get HIV testing. Multivariate analysis showed that all women improved significantly in HIV knowledge between baseline and follow-up. Moreover, HIV knowledge was significantly associated with HIV testing willingness. At follow-up, women in the control and experimental groups were 6.8 and 7.9 times more willing to receive HIV testing than at baseline, respectively. VCT seems effective in this cohort of educated pregnant women.