Attitudes towards HIV-antibody testing among general practitioners and their patients

A study was conducted by the French Communicable Diseases Network to evaluate the use of HIV-antibody testing by general practitioners. The study was aimed at determining the type of patient being tested and why. Data from two periods, Nov-Dec 86 and March-April 87, were compared. The percentages of subjects spontaneously asking for the test were about 50% in both studied periods. During the first period, tested patients were mainly male subjects (82%) and belonged to high risk groups (66%), whereas during the second period male subjects represented 47% and subjects belonging to high risk groups 27% of those tested. During the four months between the 2 study periods, an information campaign on AIDS was begun. During the second study period, in fact, the number of women being tested had increased, the number of patients with clinical symptoms had decreased and more patients were tested because of past or present STDs. In addition, fewer seropositive subjects were found during the second period. Only one subject with no known risk factor was found to be seropositive but she did have clinical symptoms of HIV infection.