HIV Testing Behaviors among Black Rural Women: The Moderating Role of Conspiracy Beliefs and Partner Status Disclosure

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated whether HIV testing attitudes, HIV conspiracy beliefs, and reported sexual partner disclosure of HIV/STI status related to one-month self-report HIV testing outcomes following a brief intervention among Black women aged 18-25 years residing in rural Mississippi.Participants: Black women (N=119; Mage=19.90, SD=1.81) recruited in rural Mississippi completed an online assessment before a brief HIV prevention intervention and a one month follow-up assessment dur­ing January to November 2016.Main Outcome Measures: Self-reported HIV testing 30-days following the interven­tion, partner HIV/STI status disclosure, beliefs in HIV conspiracy theory, and HIV testing attitudes in pre- and post-interven­tion assessments. Bivariate and multivariate analyses tested associations with HIV testing behaviors following the intervention.Results: Moderated moderation was used to examine whether HIV conspiracy beliefs and partner disclosure status both moder­ated the relationship between pre-interven­tion attitudes toward HIV testing and HIV testing at 1-month follow-up. It was found that both HIV conspiracy beliefs and partner disclosure moderated the relationship between attitudes and HIV testing at one-month follow-up. When partner disclosure was low, women with more negative at­titudes toward testing and higher conspiracy beliefs were less likely to get tested than those with negative attitudes and lower conspiracy beliefs; conspiracy beliefs did not relate to testing outcomes when testing attitudes were positive.Conclusion: Findings suggest that interven­tions may benefit from accounting for con­spiracy beliefs and the dyadic status disclo­sure when encouraging young rural women to test for HIV.Ethn Dis. 2020;30(2):251- 260; doi:10.18865/ed.30.2.251