title: Behavioral and biological risks of women seeking HIV test in an anonymous testing center.
abstract: Due to the high prevalence and morbidity sexually transmitted diseases are highly relevant to public health, especially for women.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine and compare the behavioral and biological risks associated with human immunodeficiency virus acquisition.
  
  
  METHODS
  A group of 253 women who voluntarily sought anonymous testing were interviewed to find out their behavioral risk. Biological risk was identified by means of gynecological exam, colposcopy as well as blood and cervicovaginal sampling for serological and microbiological exams. Using known traditional risk factors, a table of scores classified the subjects into high, low and absent for behavioral and biological risks. Frequency and percentage of each risk was tabulated and the correlation between risks was obtained by calculating the Kappa statistic.
  
  
  RESULTS
  79.8% of subjects were found to have behavioral risks, and 79.1% biological risks. It was also found that 66.7% of the women (169) with high behavioral risk also had high biological vulnerability. However, 31 out of 51 women without any behavioral risk had biological vulnerability 12.2 %. The Kappa statistic demonstrated low agreement between the latter risks [K = 0.05 95% CI (-0.06 to 0.17)].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women who seek care in centers for anonymous testing have high biological risk, which is neither proportional nor concurrent to behavioral risk. The low concordance found between these risks suggests the need for routine gynecological investigation (clinical and microbiological) for all women.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ayrton Daniel
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Ribeiro Filho
authors.forename: Paulo César
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Giraldo
authors.forename: Maria José Penna Maisonnette de Attayde
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: Rose Luce Gomes do
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Eleutério Junior
authors.forename: Ana Katherine da Silveira
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D035041:Anonymous Testing; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior