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Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus self-test (HIVST) refers to a process where a person collects his or her own specimen (blood or oral), performs a test and interprets the results. The interpretation of results can either be done in private or through support of a trusted partner. Self-test should be seen as screening and confirmatory test should be sort.
Study Objective: To determine facilitating factors for HIVST acceptability and uptake among MSM community.
Methods: The researcher employed a cross-sectional exploratory study design, targeting men who have sex with men (MSM) and men sex workers (MSW). The researcher used purposive sampling to identify the sites where data was collected, snowballing techniques were then employed to reach the respondents.
Results: There was a significant association between self-test and frequency of testing for HIV/AIDS at P-Value of 0.011. Eighty three percent (83%) of the respondents had a negative HIV test result, (16%) had a positive result from the previous result. Most of the MSM will seek for confirmatory test, if tested HIV positive through HIVST. Majority of the MSM respondents indicated they would go for counselling after testing positive. Healthcare workers advocated for pre-testing counselling. There was also a significant association between respondents who had never tested using self-test kits and the need for a treatment “buddy” with a P- Value of 0.014. Fifty nine percent of the respondents would prefer blood sample test kits, the kits were seen to be more accurate than oral test kits. High cost of the self-test kits and inadequate knowledge on the use of HIV self-test kits were the main hindrances to HIVST uptake.
Conclusions: A significant number of MSM community in Kenya are willing to use HIVST and are likely to seek for care within 30 days of self-testing and this is a good indicator of linkage. Blood sample kits are more preferred. Key facilitating factors for HIVST uptake include; awareness creation on the importance of HIVST and training on usage of kits, emphasis on treatment ‘buddy” for first time testers and reduction on cost of the kits.
Keywords
MSM, MSW, HIVST, HIV Testing
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This is a preprint, a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Research article
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
The most recent version of this article is available here.
No community comments so far
No comments provided
Version 1
Posted 27 Jul, 2020
No comments provided
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
The most recent version of this article is available here.
Background: Human Immunodeficiency Virus self-test (HIVST) refers to a process where a person collects his or her own specimen (blood or oral), performs a test and interprets the results. The interpretation of results can either be done in private or through support of a trusted partner. Self-test should be seen as screening and confirmatory test should be sort.
Study Objective: To determine facilitating factors for HIVST acceptability and uptake among MSM community.
Methods: The researcher employed a cross-sectional exploratory study design, targeting men who have sex with men (MSM) and men sex workers (MSW). The researcher used purposive sampling to identify the sites where data was collected, snowballing techniques were then employed to reach the respondents.
Results: There was a significant association between self-test and frequency of testing for HIV/AIDS at P-Value of 0.011. Eighty three percent (83%) of the respondents had a negative HIV test result, (16%) had a positive result from the previous result. Most of the MSM will seek for confirmatory test, if tested HIV positive through HIVST. Majority of the MSM respondents indicated they would go for counselling after testing positive. Healthcare workers advocated for pre-testing counselling. There was also a significant association between respondents who had never tested using self-test kits and the need for a treatment “buddy” with a P- Value of 0.014. Fifty nine percent of the respondents would prefer blood sample test kits, the kits were seen to be more accurate than oral test kits. High cost of the self-test kits and inadequate knowledge on the use of HIV self-test kits were the main hindrances to HIVST uptake.
Conclusions: A significant number of MSM community in Kenya are willing to use HIVST and are likely to seek for care within 30 days of self-testing and this is a good indicator of linkage. Blood sample kits are more preferred. Key facilitating factors for HIVST uptake include; awareness creation on the importance of HIVST and training on usage of kits, emphasis on treatment ‘buddy” for first time testers and reduction on cost of the kits.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
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