title: Patients Can Accurately Perform Their Own Rapid HIV Point-of-Care Test in the Emergency Department.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and accuracy of having emergency department (ED) patients perform a rapid, point-of-care (POC) self-test for HIV before routine HIV testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients aged 18 to 65 years were recruited to perform a rapid POC HIV oral fluid at The Johns Hopkins ED in conjunction with the standard-of-care HIV POC test. Acceptability and ease of use were assessed by a questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 259 patients were approached for testing, and 249 (96.1%) consented to perform a self POC HIV test. Of patients performing a self-test, 100% had concordant results with those obtained by the health care worker. Four females (1.6%) were newly identified as HIV positive. Median participant age was 41 years, and 58% of patients were female; 83% were African American, and 16% were white. Overall, greater than 90% of patients reported trust of the test results, ease of testing, and willingness to test again. Approximately 35% of patients indicated they would pay up to a maximum price of $30 for testing. Overall, 46.9% of patients preferred self-testing, and 39.5% preferred health care professional testing. Regarding preferred location for testing, 51.0% preferred home self-testing, 39.5% preferred clinic/ED self-testing (P> 0.05), and 9.5% had no preference.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A significant proportion of patients offered POC testing in the ED agreed to perform a self-HIV test. Patients' results were concordant with those obtained by the health care worker; 1.6% were HIV positive. The majority of participants believed the veracity of their results. A greater number of patients preferred self-testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Samah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nour
authors.forename: Yu-Hsiang
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Rothman
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jett-Goheen
authors.forename: Ophelia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Langhorne
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: Charlotte A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Gaydos
keywords: HIV; emergency department; oral fluid HIV test; point-of-care test; self-testing
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