title: Violence screening and viral load suppression among HIV-positive women of color.
abstract: Recent research suggests intimate partner violence (IPV) is commonly experienced by many people living with HIV/AIDS, which can complicate their care. We introduce a novel approach to screening for history of violence among 102 women of color living with HIV and receiving care at an outpatient public health clinic. Using a composite measure composed of data from a variety of screening tools, we were able to determine that 70.6% of the women had a history of violence using the composite measure, and that 43% screened positive using multiple screening tools. Although overall viral load suppression rate was high at 81.4%, women with a history of violence were less likely to be virally suppressed when compared to those without such a history (76.4% versus 93.3%, p<0.05). Our findings suggest using a variety of screening questions at entry and at follow-up care appointments may be key to identifying and supporting women survivors who may not disclose violence when first asked. Future research should foster further development, analysis, and use of a variety of screening tools such as those used in this study.
authors.affiliation: 1 Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center , Chicago, Ilinois.
authors.forename: Susan Ryerson
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Espino
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Marisol
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Precht
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xavier
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matoff-Stepp
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044966:Anti-Retroviral Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012747:Sexual Partners; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019562:Viral Load; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D044966:Anti-Retroviral Agents