Too few gay and bisexual teen boys are getting HIV tests and many are not sure where to get tested, according to a recent study.
Only one in every five gay and bisexual teen boys has been tested for HIV, according to research published online Aug. 26 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Lead study author Gregory Phillips II, PhD, MS, a research assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, said his team wanted to see what testing rates are like today, as many studies that have analyzed HIV testing behaviors are more than a decade old.
“The testing rates are really low, and there are these addressable factors we should be focusing on when we’re trying to increase the testing rates among the guys that are most at risk for HIV,” Phillips told The Nation’s Health.
Researchers used Facebook ads to recruit more than 300 males ages 14 to 18 who identified as gay, bisexual or queer for a text message-based HIV prevention program.
Participants answered questions such as how many times they had taken an HIV test and if they had been tested in the past three months, the study said.
In addition to only one in five — 20.2 percent — getting tested, less than half of those who were tested — 43 percent — had received a test in the last three months, the study said. Additionally, nearly 43 percent of participants said they did not know where they could get an HIV test, the study said.
Teens were also asked about what barriers to getting tested, such as lack of transportation and fear of running into someone they know. They were asked to rank barriers as “not important” “somewhat important” or “very important.”
The biggest barriers included not knowing where to get tested, underestimating risk for getting HIV and not wanting other people to know they got an HIV test, the study said. Gay and bisexual men are at higher risk for HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends they get tested every three to six months if they are sexually active.
To increase awareness, Phillips suggests gay and bisexual teens use CDC’s National HIV and STD Testing webpage where they can enter a ZIP code to find the nearest test sites. He also suggested school-based community testing to eliminate the stigma around knowing an HIV status.
“There are no studies out there about how widespread testing is in schools, but there are schools which have dedicated time during sex education to talk about HIV and risk behaviors,” Phillips said. “There’s a hope that sites doing coursework about it would be open to testing and informing their students about it.”
For more information, visit www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X%2815%2900259-1/abstract. For the testing site locator, visit http://gettested.cdc.gov.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
