Open AccessHIV Testing Among a Representative Community Sample of Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men in Vancouver, Canada
Author(s) -
Heather L. Armstrong,
Lu Wang,
Julia Zhu,
Nathan J. Lachowsky,
Kiffer G. Card,
Jason Wong,
Jody Jollimore,
Joshua Edward,
Eric Abella Roth,
Robert S. Hogg,
David Moore
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
aids and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.994
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1573-3254
pISSN - 1090-7165
DOI - 10.1007/s10461-018-2259-2
Subject(s) - men who have sex with men , health psychology , public health , medicine , demography , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , test (biology) , gerontology , family medicine , syphilis , paleontology , nursing , sociology , biology
Earlier HIV diagnosis allows for improved treatment outcomes and secondary prevention. It is recommended that all individuals know their HIV status and that those at higher risk test more frequently. Using a representative community sample of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), we aimed to: (1) determine the proportion of GBMSM who have tested in the past 2 years, (2) determine reasons for testing and never having tested, and (3) explore correlates of testing. Of 535 eligible participants, 80.0% reported having had an HIV test in the past 2 years, most commonly as part of a regular testing schedule. The most common reason for not testing was low perceived HIV risk. Bisexual and older GBMSM, as well as those who lived outside of Vancouver, were less likely to have tested in the past 2 years. Rapid point-of-care testing may help improve testing rates and was shown to effectively engage some hard-to-reach GBMSM (e.g., those who had not tested for other STIs) in this sample.