Hiv Testing in Secondary Care: A Multicentre Longitudinal Mixed Methods Electronic Survey of Non-Hiv Specialist Hospital Physicians in South-East Scotland and Northern England
Year: 2021
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Increasing the uptake of HIV testing in people who may have undiagnosed HIV is essential to reduce the morbidity associated with late HIV diagnosis. METHODS: We conducted a multicentre, longitudinal, mixed-methods study, surveying the attitudes, knowledge and practice of non-HIV specialist hospital physicians in South-East Scotland and North-East England with respect to HIV testing. RESULTS: We found that although awareness of indications for HIV testing had improved over time, only 13% of clinicians recognised all of the surveyed HIV indicator conditions. Physicians were better at recognising the indicator conditions relevant to their specialty. The perception of working with a low-risk patient population was the most frequently cited barrier to offering an HIV test. Only a third of study respondents had requested more than 10 HIV tests in the preceding year. CONCLUSIONS: Our study supports a need for targeted and sustained educational initiatives to increase rates of HIV testing in secondary care.
Authors: Naomi Bulteel, Naomi Henderson, Victoria Parris, Richard Capstick, Nikhil Premchand, Ewan Hunter, Meghan Perry
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3200933980