Open AccessFew Aggressive or Violent Incidents are Associated with the Use of HIV Self-tests to Screen Sexual Partners Among Key Populations
Author(s) -
Alex CarballoDiéguez,
Rebecca Giguere,
Ivan C. Balán,
Curtis Dolezal,
William Brown,
Javier López-Rios,
Alan Z. Sheinfil,
Timothy Frasca,
Christine Tagliaferri Rael,
Cody Lentz,
Raynier Crespo,
Catherine Cruz Torres,
Cheng-Shiun Leu,
Irma Febo
Publication year - 2020
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/s10461-020-02809-1
Subject(s) - health psychology , context (archaeology) , intervention (counseling) , psychology , clinical psychology , test (biology) , public health , hiv test , poison control , randomized controlled trial , men who have sex with men , sexual partner , domestic violence , suicide prevention , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medicine , psychiatry , population , family medicine , medical emergency , environmental health , nursing , health services , biology , paleontology , syphilis , health facility , surgery , gonorrhea
Men who have sex with men and transgender women who had multiple sexual partners in the prior 3 months participated in ISUM, a randomized, controlled trial of self- and partner-testing in New York City and San Juan, PR. Only 2% of screened participants were ineligible to enroll due to anticipating they would find it very hard to avoid or handle violence. The intervention group received free rapid HIV self-test kits. During the trial, 114 (88%) of intervention participants who were assessed at follow-up used self-tests with at least one potential partner. Only 6% of participants who asked a partner in person to test reported that at least one of their partners got physically violent, some in the context of sex work. In total, 16 (2%) partners reacted violently. Post-trial, only one participant reported finding it very hard to handle violence, and none found it very hard to avoid potential violence.