Piloting an HIV self-test kit voucher program to raise serostatus awareness of high-risk African Americans, Los Angeles

BMC Public Health

Jeffrey D Klausner²  Rhea Mathew⁵  Jose Ortiz⁵  Jeffrey Rodriguez¹  Greg Wilson⁴  Claire C Bristow²  Sean D Young³  Robert W Marlin² 

[1]LA Gay & Lesbian Center, Schrader Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, USA

[2]Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA

[3]Department of Family Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA

[4]Reach LA, E Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, USA

[5]University of California, Los Angeles, Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, USA

关键词: Feasibility;    In-home testing;    Self-testing;    Los Angeles;    African American;    Voucher;    HIV;   

Others  :  1122886
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-1226

 received in 2014-04-18, accepted in 2014-11-10,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Up to half of all new HIV cases in Los Angeles may be caused by the 20-30% of men who have sex with men (MSM) with unrecognized HIV infection. Racial/ethnic minority MSM are at particularly high risk for being sero-unaware and due to stigma and poor healthcare access might benefit from novel private, self-testing methods, such as the recently FDA-approved OraQuick® In-Home HIV Test.

Methods

From July-November 2013, we undertook a pilot study to examine the feasibility of a voucher program for free OraQuick® tests targeting African American MSM in Los Angeles. We determined feasibility based on: (1) the establishment of a voucher redemption and third-party payment system, (2) the willingness of community-based organizations (CBOs) to disseminate vouchers, and (3) the collection of user demographics, test and linkage-to-care results with an anonymous telephone survey.

Results

We partnered with Walgreens® to create a voucher and third-party reimbursement system for free OraQuick® tests. Voucher distribution was divided into two periods. In total, 641 vouchers were supplied to CBOs: 274 (42.7%) went to clients and of those 53 (19.3%) were redeemed. Fifty (18.2%) of the 274 clients were surveyed: 44 (88%) were African American, 39 (78%) reported being likely to repeat voucher use, 44 (88%) reported reviewing pre-test information, and 37 (74%) the post-test information. Three (6%) of 50 survey respondents reported newly testing HIV-positive of whom all (100%) reported seeking medical care. Two withheld their results, both of whom also sought medical care.

Conclusions

Developing and partnering with a commercial pharmacy to institute a voucher system to facilitate HIV self-testing with linkage-to-care was feasible. Our findings suggest the voucher program was associated with increasing the identification of new cases of HIV infection with high rates of linkage to care. Expanded research and evaluation of voucher programs for HIV self-test kits among high-risk groups is warranted.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Marlin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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