AEGiS-14IAC: An evaluation of women's attitude towards universal antenatal HIV screening.

14th International AIDS Conference

Barcelona, Spain - July 7-12, 2002

An evaluation of women's attitude towards universal antenatal HIV screening.

Int Conf AIDS 2002 Jul 7-12; 14:(abstract no. D11084)

Chung TK
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Cocos (Keeling) Islands

BACKGROUND: An evaluation of maternal views on antenatal HIV screening by a prospective questionnaire study

METHODS: antenatal clinic of a hospital in Hong Kong, with 1519 pregnant women

RESULTS: Women generally have fairly good knowledge on HIV infection. 61.4% used condoms, 25.3 % had at least one risk factor for HIV infection, 80.2 % think they have no or low risk in contracting HIV infection. Support for mandatory and universal screening were 31.4% and 48.8% respectively. The major reason for declining the test was women considered themselves to be at low risk (84.3%). Women with risk factors tend to prefer more aggressive method of antenatal testing (p<0.001) and more readily accept HIV screening (89.8% vs. 73.1%, p<0.001). Unexpectedly, non-condom users were found to perceive themselves at lower risk of contracting HIV than condom users (p=0.009).

CONCLUSION: Overall, pregnant women have a positive attitude towards HIV screening.

Keywords: AEGIS, HIV Infections, Mass Screening, HIV Seropositivity, Risk Factors, Attitude, Condoms, AIDS Serodiagnosis, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Prenatal Diagnosis, Questionnaires, Attitude to Health, Prospective Studies, Hong Kong, Human, Female, Pregnancy, diagnosis

020707
D11084