Attitudes towards premarital testing on human immunodeficiency virus infection among Malawians

To determine factors influencing voluntary counseling and premarital testing on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in Malawi.

We analyzed the data collected by the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) 2000 to determine the likelihood of Malawi population to accept HIV testing. The MDHS was a nationwide cross-sectional study where cluster sampling technique and an interviewer-administered questionnaire were used. We applied the Logit model of analysis to determine the HIV testing likelihood according to the following parameters: age, place of residence (urban vs. rural), belief that sexual abstinence protects from HIV infection, knowledge of a location of HIV testing, belief that diagnosis of HIV should be kept secret, and knowledge of anyone with AIDS.

Out of 3,092 participants, 23.3% lived in urban and 76.7% in rural areas. Willingness to have premarital HIV counseling and testing was positively associated with increased age, urban residence, and wish to keep one's own HIV testing result confidential. However, knowledge of a person with HIV/AIDS, HIV testing location, and other sexually transmitted infections/diseases, as well as belief that abstinence protects against HIV were inversely related to desire to take an HIV test.

Not all population groups have an equal likelihood of accepting voluntary HIV counseling and testing. Public health intervention on HIV counseling and testing should be tailored specifically for each population group.