Fogel JM, Zhang Y, Palumbo PJ, Guo X, Richardson P, Piwowar-Manning E, Hamilton EL, Ha TV, Dumchev K, Djoerban Z, Hoffman I, Hanscom B, Miller WC, Eshleman SH, Clarke W, Breaud A. Use of Antiretroviral Drug Testing to Assess the Accuracy of Self-Reported Data from Hiv-Infected People Who Inject Drugs [HPTN 074]. AIDS Behav. 2019, 23: 2101–2108. PMC6602865
Abstract:
We used antiretroviral (ARV) drug testing to evaluate the accuracy of self-reported data for HIV status and antiretroviral treatment (ART) among people who inject drugs enrolled in an HIV prevention trial. ARV drugs were detected in enrollment samples from 72/482 = 14.9% HIV-infected participants (39/52 = 75.0% who reported being on ART; 33/430 = 7.7% who reported not being on ART). Overall, 213/482 = 44.2% participants indicated that they were not aware of their HIV-positive status prior to study entry; of those, 30 had ARV drugs detected at enrollment, including 15 who also had ARV drugs detected at the screening visit. These participants were likely aware of their HIV-positive status at study entry but did not report this to study staff. This study shows that self-reported data on HIV testing history and ART may not be accurate and that ARV drug testing can help identify persons who are aware of their HIV-positive status and are on ART.