Home-Based HIV Testing and Counselling In a Survey Context in Uganda

Abstract

This report examines the results of a study in which respondents who participated in a population-based survey were offered free HIV and syphilis testing and next-day test results if they consented to give a blood sample. The survey itself known as the home-based voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) survey was conducted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Uganda in order to test the feasibility of offering HIV test results and counselling at home within a survey and to see what effect offering home-based VCT might have on rates of participation in the survey and in the blood draw. The survey interviewed respondents in the Central Western and West Nile regions of Uganda with a questionnaire that had been used earlier in a national survey on sexual practices and HIV/AIDS. Conducted by the Child Health and Development Centre (CHDC) this study observed the interaction between the MOH survey teams and survey respondents. This survey process included interviewing survey respondents during the initial survey and again some months later administering the informed consent statement for drawing blood drawing blood for testing and delivering the test results at home. The CHDC study sought to understand how and why respondents consented to have blood drawn and agreed to a home visit by a counsellor to learn their test results. A return visit several months later examined the social consequences related to receiving HIV test results at home. (excerpt)