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Women's acceptability of screening for HIV in pregnancy
K A Heckert1, S Bagshaw, L Fursman
1Christchurch School of Medicine, Department of Public Health and General Practice. karen.heckert@chmeds.ac.nz
Aims:
To elicit acceptability of HIV screening during pregnancy in women of reproductive age in Christchurch.
Methods:
In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with women of reproductive age recruited from seven different service sites in Christchurch.
Results:
Women wanted to know about treatment that significantly reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission. They wanted to know about other antenatal screening and were prepared to provide general consent, rather than specific consent for HIV testing. All study participants favoured routine offer of HIV testing during pregnancy for all women and most would agree to be tested, if the test was offered and recommended.
Conclusions:
The results of this study indicate the need to develop and test a user-friendly approach for offering routine HIV testing during standard antenatal care in New Zealand.