What Are the Best Ways to Uncover Undiagnosed HIV Among Heterosexuals?

A Brooklyn study suggests using peer networks to recruit at-risk individuals is effective.

February 8, 2017

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Using peer networks to recruit high-risk heterosexuals into HIV testing is likely a more effective social­-behavioral intervention to uncover undiagnosed cases of the virus than targeting venues to find such individuals.

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, researchers compared the efficacy of three such interventions of high-risk heterosexuals in central Brooklyn.

The three methods included two driven by peer recruitment: One included a single anonymous HIV testing session; the other included two confidential HIV testing sessions. The third intervention involved recruiting potentially high-risk individuals at specific venues.

Participants recruited through all three interventions had high levels of behavioral factors associated with high HIV risk (poverty, substance use, incarceration) along with low levels of annual HIV testing. The proportion of each group newly diagnosed with the virus during the study was a respective 4 percent and 1 percent in the one-session and two-session peer-recruitment intervention groups and 0.3 percent in the group recruited at venues.

The researchers concluded that the venue-based recruitment method was not an optimal way to find high-risk heterosexuals with undiagnosed HIV, possibly because venue crowds tend to include many low-risk individuals, making it difficult to find those at highest risk. Peer-to-peer recruitment of high-risk heterosexuals is a more efficient method.

To read a press release about the study, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.

Read more articles from POZ, here.