Patients' attitudes towards increasing the offer of HIV testing in primary and secondary care

Abstract

The UK National Guidelines on HIV testing (2008) recommend routinely offering an HIV test to patients in certain clinical settings. We wished to investigate the acceptability of implementing these guidelines in a population with a low HIV prevalence. Patients accessing primary and secondary care were asked to circle one of the five responses to a series of statements regarding HIV testing. Of the 616 respondents, 579 (94%) stated they would be willing to be tested if presenting with a condition known to be associated with HIV. Four hundred and forty out of 616 (71%) stated they would be willing to be tested as part of their routine care, while 445/616 (72%) stated they would be willing to have the result in their main medical notes. Although the patients' responses were largely receptive to increased testing, we encountered notable negative attitudes to the project from professional and administrative staff. Resistance to increased HIV testing may be related to health-care workers rather than patients.