Related Experiment Videos
HIV prevalence in a midwestern emergency department
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Ramsey Clinic, St Paul, Minnesota.
Study Objective:
To determine the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity of patients 15 years of age and older in our emergency department.
Design:
HIV status was determined anonymously, and the seroprevalence rate was calculated. The 95% confidence intervals also were calculated. Twenty demographic and predictor categorical variable were cross-tabulated with HIV status to determine associations. Only gender and male homosexual preference were significantly associated by Fisher's exact test.
Type Of Participants:
Excess serum samples from 454 randomly selected patients 15 years of age and older who required venipuncture for their ED evaluation were included in the study.
Measurements And Main Results:
Of the 454 serum specimens, six (1.32%) were positive for HIV. The 95% confidence interval was from 0.27% to 2.37%. All six positive patients were men. The only statistically significant risk factors associated with HIV seropositivity were male sex (P = .00112) and male homosexual preference (P = .0000).
Conclusion:
HIV seropositivity occurs in 1.32% of our ED population over the age of 15 years. The only factors that correlate with HIV seropositivity are male homosexual preference and male sex.