Informing efforts to reach UNAIDS’ 90–90–90 targets: a comparison of characteristics of people diagnosed with HIV in health facilities to the general population of people living with HIV in Mozambique

ABSTRACT

Global targets aim to increase the number of people living with HIV (PLWH) who know their status. Using data from Mozambican facility-based HIV testing and counseling (HTC) and a population-based survey, we compared characteristics of PLWH diagnosed in HTC to the general population of PLWH to identify subgroups that are missing from the health system and may be undiagnosed. Male and female PLWH aged 50+ (PPR = 0.47, p = .0001) and with higher HIV knowledge (PPR = 0.52, p = .004) were underrepresented in HTC. A higher proportion of patients diagnosed in health facilities were aged 25–39 (PPR = 1.23, p = .02). Female PLWH with lower economic (PPR = 0.70, p = .04) and educational status (PPR = 0.86, p = .02) and male PLWH aged 18–24 (PPR = 0.47, p = .03) were underrepresented in HTC. Comparing HTC data to population-based data can inform efforts to increase HIV diagnoses and to ensure that all PLWH know their status.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV testing
• undiagnosed HIV
• population-based surveys
• implementation science

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) [USAID award number: AID-OAA-A-12-00027] and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award number [T32AI114398] (SK). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of USAID or the National Institutes of Health.Mozambique AIDS Indicator Survey data can be accessed at http://dhsprogram.com/data/available-datasets.cfm