Behavioral and biological risks of women seeking HIV test in an anonymous testing center

Ribeiro Filho, Ayrton Daniel; Giraldo, Paulo César; de Attayde Silva, Maria José Penna Maisonnette; Amaral, Rose Luce Gomes do; Junior, José Eleutério; da Silveira Gonçalves, Ana Katherine

doi:10.1016/S1413-8670(11)70205-7

The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases

ISSN: 1413-8670

The Brazilian Journal of Infectious Diseases is the official publication of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases (SBI). It aims to publish relevant articles in the broadest sense on all aspects of microbiology, infectious diseases and immune response to infectious agents.
The BJID is a bimonthly publication and one of the most influential journals in its field in Brazil and Latin America with a high impact factor. Since its inception it has garnered a growing share of the publishing market.

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CABI Publishing; Chemical Abstracts (CAS); China Education Publications Import and Export Corporation (CEPIEC); EBSCO Database (Premium Research); Elsevier Science - Bibliographic Databases Division; Embase/Excerpta Medica; Gale Cengage Learning; Index Copernicus International; ISI (Web of Science) - Science Citation Index Expanded (SCISEARCH); Journal Citation Reports (Science Edition); Kessler-Hancok Information Service; Latin America and Caribean Literature of Health Science (LILACS); LATINDEX; Medline/ Index Medicus/Pubmed; Qualis International (CAPES): B3 (International Quality); Redalyc (Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America, Caribbean, Spain and Portugal) SCIELO; SCIRUS (Elsevier); SCOPUS Index; Sociedad Iberoamericana de Información Cientifica (SIIC); Subis Database (SUBIS Bulletin); Swets Blackwell; Teldan Database Production; The US Library of Congress Office; Ulrich¿s Periodicals Directory.

A group of 253 women who voluntarily sought anonymous testing were interviewed to find out their behavioral risk. Biological risk was identified by means of gynecological exam, colposcopy as well as blood and cervicovaginal sampling for serological and microbiological exams. Using known traditional risk factors, a table of scores classified the subjects into high, low and absent for behavioral and biological risks. Frequency and percentage of each risk was tabulated and the correlation between risks was obtained by calculating the Kappa statistic.

Results

79.8% of subjects were found to have behavioral risks, and 79.1% biological risks. It was also found that 66.7% of the women (169) with high behavioral risk also had high biological vulnerability. However, 31 out of 51 women without any behavioral risk had biological vulnerability 12.2%. The Kappa statistic demonstrated low agreement between the latter risks [K=0.05 95% CI (−0.06 to 0.17)].

Conclusion

Women who seek care in centers for anonymous testing have high biological risk, which is neither proportional nor concurrent to behavioral risk. The low concordance found between these risks suggests the need for routine gynecological investigation (clinical and microbiological) for all women.

Keywords:

HIV

sexually transmitted diseases

women

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