Voluntary HIV testing in prison: do women inmates at high risk for HIV accept HIV testing?

This study examined the proportion of women inmates who accepted HIV testing and the sociodemographic, criminal, and HIV-related risk characteristics associated with accepting such testing in a state prison offering voluntary HIV testing. A consecutive sample of 805 women felons admitted to the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women between July 1991 and November 1992 was interviewed. Of these inmates, 680 (84%) granted permission to access their medical records and had complete information on relevant characteristics. Seventy-one percent of the women inmates accepted HIV testing. In multivariate analysis, the exchange of sex for money or drugs and the conviction for a drug crime were significantly associated with accepting HIV testing. Injection drug use, drug-injecting sex partners, and a history of a sexually transmitted disease were not significantly associated with accepting HIV testing. A prison-based voluntary HIV testing program appears to be reaching a substantial proportion of women inmates potentially at risk for HIV, especially women inmates who exchanged sex for money or drugs.