Abstract

MORALES, Alexandra; ESPADA, José P.  and  ORGILES, Mireia. Barriers to HIV testing among adolescents in Spain. Psychosocial Intervention [online]. 2016, vol.25, n.3, pp.135-141. ISSN 2173-4712.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psi.2016.06.002.

Most teenagers and young people do not consistently use condoms during sex, exposing themselves to HIV. Early diagnosis of the virus increases the survival rate and reduces new infections. Attitude towards HIV testing (HT) and the main barriers to testing remain unknown. The main objective of the study was to explore the attitude towards HT and identify the main barriers of those who had never undergone HT before. This study involved 992 adolescents (16-20 years), who were recruited from 4 autonomous regions of Spain. The mean age was 16.84 (SD = .92) and 54.6% were women. The attitude towards HT was very favorable, especially in women. 79.2% of sexually active participants did not consistently use condoms during sex; however only 1% (n = 11) reported having undergone HT. The main perceived barriers were related to not having received the offer to get tested (49%), low risk perception (32.6%) and trust between sexual partners (29.1%). Facilitating access of the HIV screening test to adolescents with high sexual risk is crucial to the success of early detection campaigns, and curb the spread of the HIV.

Keywords : Adolescence; Sexual transmitted infections; Human immunodeficiency virus; Screening test; Sexual risk.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )