title: Self-reported HIV testing practice among physicians treating tuberculosis in Australia and New Zealand.
abstract: Not all people with tuberculosis have their HIV status ascertained despite the interaction between these infections. We investigated the self-reported HIV testing practice among physicians treating tuberculosis in Australia and New Zealand and used logistic regression to assess factors associated with a routine offer of HIV testing in cases of tuberculosis. Of 290 subjects, 61% always recommended an HIV test for a 38-year-old married man with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis. A lower proportion (40%) always tested a 78-year-old man or a female patient (58%), and more always HIV tested a South African case (85%), a patient with oral candidiasis (87%) or an unmarried male patient (66%). No scenario was associated with a universal offer of HIV testing. Clinician factors such as specialty (odds ratio [OR] 3.09), jurisdiction of practice (OR 4.09) and number of HIV tests requested in the past five years (OR 0.29) predicted the self-reported frequency of always HIV testing tuberculosis patients. At least 48% of respondents reported that epidemiological or clinical factors influenced their decision to offer testing. Strategies to increase HIV testing in cases of tuberculosis need to consider clinician factors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Emerson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Vollmer-Conna
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Post
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008511:Medicine; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology*