National survey shows fear of HIV/AIDS stigma persists

• Originally published in AIDS Policy and Law August 16, 2004

Copyright 2004 LRP Publications 

To kick off National HIV Testing Day, June 27, the Kaiser Family Foundation released data from a new national survey on HIV testing and a fact sheet that provides current testing data as well as information on testing policies, recommendations and techniques.

The survey found that among all U.S. adults:

n About 48 percent report having been tested for HIV, including 20 percent who have undergone testing in the last year.

n Among non-elderly adults, 55 percent said they have been tested for HIV, an increase from 43 percent in 1997.

n At 71 percent, non-elderly African-Americans are the most likely to say they have been tested at some point in their lives, followed by 54 percent of Latinos and 51 percent of whites. Among these groups, however, the numbers who have been tested in the last 12 months have remained relatively stable since 1997, at 38 percent of African-Americans, 30 percent of Latinos and 18 percent of whites.

The survey also showed that while an increasing percentage of Americans report having talked to their doctors about HIV/AIDS, 38 percent tested in 2004 said misconceptions and stigma about HIV testing persist, compared to 30 percent who held those views in 2000. More than 30 percent of those tested said they would be concerned that people would think less of them if they found out they had been tested for HIV. And among all who said they have been tested for HIV, 23 percent had the impression the test was done as a routine part of an exam.

The portion of Kaiser's national Survey of Americans on HIV/AIDS is the second of three releases from the survey. Part one was released June 2 and focused on Americans' views on global HIV/AIDS. A more in-depth report on Americans' views and experiences with HIV will be released late this month, with a focus on differences between and among key subgroups of the population.

A summary of this part of the survey can be found at www.kff.org/kaiserpolls. A fact sheet, HIV Testing in the United States, is available at www.kff.org/hivaids/6094-02.cfm.