RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Factors associated with HIV testing and counselling services among women and men in Nepal: a cross-sectional study using data from a nationally representative survey
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e049415
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049415
VO 11
IS 12
A1 Navaraj Bhattarai
A1 Kiran Bam
A1 Kiran Acharya
A1 Rajshree Thapa
A1 Bhagawan Shrestha
YR 2021
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/12/e049415.abstract
AB Objectives This study is set up to explore the factors associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) testing among women and men in Nepal.Study design Nepal Demographic and Health Survey, 2016 adopts a cross-sectional design.Setting Nepal.Participants Women and men of age 15–49 years.Primary outcome measures Our primary outcome was ever tested for HIV. We used multivariable analysis at a 95% level of significance to measure the effect in outcome variables.Results About one in 10 women (10.8%) and one in five men (20.5%) ever tested for HIV. Women who had media exposure at least once a week ((adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=2.8; 95% CI: 1.4 to 5.3) were more likely to get tested for HIV compared with those who had no media exposure at all. Similarly, those who had their recent delivery in the health facility (aOR=3.9; 95% CI: 2.4 to 6.3) were more likely to get tests for HIV compared with those delivered elsewhere. Likewise, among men, compared with adolescents (15–19 years), those from older age groups were more likely to get tested for HIV. Compared with no education, secondary (aOR=2.3; 95% CI: 1.4 to 3.6) and higher education (aOR=1.7; 95% CI: 1.0 to 2.8) had higher odds of getting tested for HIV. Similarly, wealth quintiles in richer and richest groups were more likely to get tested for HIV compared with the poorest quintile. Other characteristics like media exposure, paid sex and 2+ sexual partners were positively associated with being tested for HIV.Conclusions HIV testing is not widespread and more men than women are accessing HIV services. More than two-thirds of women who delivered at health facilities never tested for HIV. It is imperative to reach out to people engaging in risky sexual behaviour, people with lower educational attainment, and those in the lower wealth quintile for achieving 95–95–95 targets by 2030.Data are available upon reasonable request. Data are available in a public, open access repository. The datasets generated during the current study are available from within the Demographic and Health Survey Program repository (https://dhsprogram.com/data/ available-datasets.cfm).