HIV testing among Deep South residents with serious psychological distress

To describe the prevalence of serious psychological distress among Deep South residents and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing among Deep South residents with serious psychological distress.

Data from the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey from Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina were used for this study. Andersen's behavioral model of health care use provided the conceptual framework for the study. The Kessler 6 was used to dichotomize the sample as having or not having serious psychological distress. chi2 Test and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed on the weighted data.

Only 5.7% of our sample had experienced serious psychological distress in the past 30 days. A majority proportion of persons with serious psychological distress (54.9%) had been tested for HIV. HIV testing was slightly more prevalent among males with serious psychological distress (63%) than females with serious psychological distress (60%). Predisposing factors (age, race/ethnicity, and urbanization) were confounders of HIV testing among both males and females with serious psychological distress. Enabling factors (income, health care access) were only confounders of HIV testing among males with serious psychological distress.

Future HIV prevention and management efforts should consider the potential role of concurrent serious psychological distress in impacting an individual's daily life and health activities such as self-care, caring for family, and maintaining employment.