Posts tagged HIV testing
HIV Testing Through Social Media
9 years ago
How to Get High Risk Men to Submit to HIV Testing: Use Social Media
Social media has become very prevalent in modern society, so why not put it to good use? A recent study showed that one such good use could be to help people exhibit more medically safe behaviors. In this particular study, the focus was on men who are at high risk to contract HIV.
Researchers got more than 100 sexually active homosexual males to participate in the study. They used ads on social networking sites to recruit these volunteers. The men were divided into two groups. Half of the men were placed in an HIV intervention group on Facebook. The other half was placed into a group that discussed health in general. Within each group, designated peer leaders chatted with members of the group, sent them direct messages, and posted on their Facebook walls.
The HIV group discussed matters that directly related to the disease, such as the importance of getting tested, and how to reduce risk by altering behaviors. The group that focused on general health stuck to topics such as nutrition and exercise. The study continued for 12 weeks, and despite the fact that there was nothing binding the men to keep up with the groups, the men as a group did and many participated regularly throughout the study.
At the beginning and end of the study, each participant was encourage to perform an at-home self-test for HIV as well as fill out a survey dealing with various topics related to the disease. What were the results?
The men in the HIV group proved more than twice as likely to take the HIV test. Even more astounding was that men in the HIV group were over 4 times more likely to take the survey. Those in the HIV group were also more active in chats and other group activities.
Clearly this study showed that social media can have benefits in affecting the behavior of those at risk for HIV, encouraging them both to take preventative measures and to be tested more regularly.
HIV Screening for All
10 years ago
by ADMIN
in HIV Prevention
A recent study has shown that a more effective way of diagnosing those with HIV is to screen everyone who comes into an ER at random, rather than only offering testing to those who are considered to be at high risk for the disease. Of course, emergency departments are busy enough without adding HIV testing to the mix, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good idea for implementation.
Those who defend targeted testing as being the best method will point to its cost-effectiveness by reducing the number of tests performed; it also saves time for ER staff. The problem: People who aren’t considered at risk are far more likely to never think about getting tested. Thus, more can slip through the cracks without ever knowing that they have the disease. This leads to further spread of the virus.
A recent study has made a good case for random HIV screening. The test included nearly 10,000 ER patients. The patients who were screened randomly revealed more HIV-positive individuals than targeted testing. Also, the difference in the number of random tests performed was only slightly more than the number of targeted tests.
While about 60% of the randomly approached patients declined the test (this accounts for the number of patients tested being similar to that of targeted screening), testing on those who consented resulted in 6 individuals learning for the first time that they had HIV. This is crucial so they could begin antiretroviral therapy as soon as possible; it may have also resulted in these 6 individuals being able to take extra precautions so as not to spread the disease.
The verdict is, then, that targeted testing really doesn’t save that much time for ER staff, and it certainly doesn’t catch more undiagnosed cases of the disease. The better method is to implement a more random screening procedure if the staff cannot handle offering the test to every patient.
