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Vol. 15. Issue 4.
Pages 360-364 (July - August 2011)
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Vol. 15. Issue 4.
Pages 360-364 (July - August 2011)
Original article
Open Access
Behavioral and biological risks of women seeking HIV test in an anonymous testing center
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Ayrton Daniel Ribeiro Filho1, Paulo César Giraldo2,
Corresponding author
giraldo@unicamp.br

Correspondence to: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Cidade Universitária, “Zeferino Vaz”, Rua Alexander Fleming, 101, Campinas, 13083-881, São Paulo, Brazil. Phone/Fax: (19) 3788-9306.
, Maria José Penna Maisonnette de Attayde Silva3, Rose Luce Gomes do Amaral4, José Eleutério Junior5, Ana Katherine da Silveira Gonçalves6
1 Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil
2 Post-doctorate, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, Division of Microbiolgy and Immunology; Head Professor, Tocogynecology Department, Unicamp, Brazil
3 Health Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN); Assistant Professor, Universidade Potiguar, Brazil
4 Gynecology, Unicamp; Physician, Tocogynecology Department, Unicamp, Brazil
5 Gynecology, Unicamp; Professor, Tocogynecology Department, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil
6 Unicamp; Professor, Tocogynecology Department, UFRN, Brazil
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Abstract

Due to the high prevalence and morbidity sexually transmitted diseases are highly relevant to public health, especially for women.

Objectives

To determine and compare the behavioral and biological risks associated with human immunodeficiency virus acquisition.

Methods

A group of 253 women who voluntarily sought anonymous testing were interviewed to find out their behavioral risk. Biological risk was identified by means of gynecological exam, colposcopy as well as blood and cervicovaginal sampling for serological and microbiological exams. Using known traditional risk factors, a table of scores classified the subjects into high, low and absent for behavioral and biological risks. Frequency and percentage of each risk was tabulated and the correlation between risks was obtained by calculating the Kappa statistic.

Results

79.8% of subjects were found to have behavioral risks, and 79.1% biological risks. It was also found that 66.7% of the women (169) with high behavioral risk also had high biological vulnerability. However, 31 out of 51 women without any behavioral risk had biological vulnerability 12.2%. The Kappa statistic demonstrated low agreement between the latter risks [K=0.05 95% CI (−0.06 to 0.17)].

Conclusion

Women who seek care in centers for anonymous testing have high biological risk, which is neither proportional nor concurrent to behavioral risk. The low concordance found between these risks suggests the need for routine gynecological investigation (clinical and microbiological) for all women.

Keywords:
HIV
sexually transmitted diseases
women
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