[Acceptance of HIV antibody testing among pregnant women]

During the period April 17-July 14, 1989, 820 pregnant women were offered HIV-antibody testing at the antenatal clinic, Aarhus Municipality Hospital. Seven hundred and seventy-nine (95%) agreed to complete a questionnaire concerning, among other things, previous HIV-antibody testing. 20% of the participants had been tested previously, half of them because they were blood donors. More than 3% had been tested because of self-perceived risk behaviour or a risk environment. In three women, the previous test had shown HIV-antibodies to be present, and three further women refused to report the test result. 81% of the women consented to be tested. Acceptance declined during the project period. Those who had not been tested previously consented more frequently than those who had. Students were less willing to consent than others. Nineteen out of 20 women (2.6%), who considered themselves at high risk, accepted the offer to be tested. Thirty-eight (5%) of the 150 women who declined to be tested, would have accepted if their general practitioner had suggested it. None of the women tested at present were found to be HIV-antibody positive. When the project was terminated, a total of 87% of the women had been HIV-antibody tested previously or at present. We suggest routine HIV surveillance of pregnant women by use of voluntary HIV-antibody testing in combination with anonymous testing (AUT technique) in case the women does not want to know the test result.