Women Who Know: The Relationship between Risk and HIV Testing

Lindsay Howden, Texas A&M University

This paper uses data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to evaluate the relationship between risk factors for HIV and being tested for the disease. In particular, I am interested in this relationship in women, since prevalence of HIV in women in the United States has been growing. Utilizing a logistic regression analysis, I examine the relationship between 12 risk factors, including both drug use and sexual risk factors, and whether or not a woman has been tested for HIV. The results of this analysis found that drug use significantly predicted a woman’s HIV testing status, however only 2 of the relevant sexual risk factors remained significant in the final model. In the absence of significant error, the results presented in this analysis indicate that women with many of these HIV-related risk factors are no more likely to be tested than are women without the high risk factors.