HIV Testing and Healthcare Utilization Among U.S. African-American Women

A severe HIV/AIDS disparity exists for U.S. African-American women. Although HIV testing and healthcare engagement are paramount to HIV prevention and community health, many African-American women do not test for HIV or optimize healthcare services. To unpack the relationship between HIV testing and healthcare utilization among African-American women, latent class analysis (LCA) was used among a national, representative sample from the 2014 National Health Interview Survey to assess subgroup profiles of African-American women regarding HIV testing and healthcare utilization behaviors. This study also explored the covariates predicting latent class membership: age, income, cost of living worry, and healthcare service satisfaction. LCA identified three subgroups of U.S. African-American women: (a) Moderate HIV testing/Low healthcare utilization, (b) Moderate HIV testing/High healthcare utilization, and (c) No HIV testing/High healthcare utilization. Future HIV prevention interventions should be tailored to specific subgroups of African- American women based on HIV testing behaviors and healthcare use and experiences.