HIV Voluntary Testing among Portuguese Women Attending Family Planning Clinics: Implications for HIV Prevention Education and Testing

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The aim of this article is to analyze the factors associated with HIV testing among 767 sexually active women. Methods: Participants were administered several self-report questionnaires that assessed behavioral and psychosocial measures. Results: Overall, 59.8% of the participants reported ever having tested for HIV. Results show that higher levels of education, being pregnant or having been pregnant, concern about AIDS, AIDS knowledge, self-efficacy in condom negotiation and perception of no risk in partner significantly predicted the likelihood of testing among women. Attending the mass was negatively associated with HIV testing. Conclusions: These findings provide information that can be used in the development of a focused gender sensitive HIV prevention program to increase HIV testing.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV prevention
• women
• sexual attitudes and behaviors
• HIV testing

Acknowledgements

We thank all women that agreed to participate in this study. We acknowledge master students in clinical and health psychology for their assistance in conducting participant interviews.

Funding

This work was supported by the Center of Philosophical and Humanistic Studies of the Portuguese Catholic University, funded by the Foundation of Science and Technology, under grant number PEst-OE/FIL/UI0683/2014.