For Publishers
DiscoveryMetadataPeer reviewHostingPublishing
For Researchers
JoinPublishReviewCollect
Register
Blog
About
Search
Advanced search
My ScienceOpen
Search
For Publishers
For Researchers
Blog
About
7
views
10
references
 Top references
cited by
22
    
0 reviews
 Review
0
comments
 Comment
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      148
      similar
       All similar
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Acceptability, feasibility, and individual preferences of blood-based HIV self-testing in a population-based sample of adolescents in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo

      research-article

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          Adolescents living in sub-Saharan Africa constitute a vulnerable population at significant risk of HIV infection. This study aims to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and accuracy of home-based, supervised HIV self-testing (HIVST) as well as their predictors among adolescents living in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

          Methods

          A cross-sectional, door-to-door survey using a blood-based HIV self-test and a peer-based supervised HIVST approach was conducted from July to August 2018 in Kisangani, DRC. The acceptability and feasibility of HIVST were assessed among adolescents’ consenting to use and interpret HIV self-test. The accuracy of HIVST was estimated by the sensibility and specificity of adolescent-interpreted HIV self-test. Factors associated with acceptability and feasibility of HIVST were analyzed with logistic regression.

          Results

          A total of 628 adolescents (including 369 [58.8%] females) aged between 15 and 19 years were enrolled. Acceptability of HIVST was high (95.1%); 96.1% of participants correctly used the self-test, and 65.2% asked for verbal instructions. The majority of adolescents (93.5%) correctly interpreted their self-test results. The Cohen’s κ coefficient between the results read by adolescents and by supervisors was 0.62. The correct interpretation decreased significantly when adolescents had no formal education or attended primary school as compared to those currently attending university (37.0% versus 100%; adjusted OR: 0.01 [95% CI: 0.004–0.03]). In the hands of adolescents at home, the sensitivity of the Exacto Test HIV Self-test was estimated at 100%, while its specificity was 96.0%. The majority of participants (68.0%) affirmed that post-test counseling was essential, and that face-to-face counseling (78.9%) was greatly preferred.

          Conclusions

          Home-based, supervised HIVST using a blood-based self-test and peer-based approach can be used with a high degree of acceptability and feasibility by adolescents living in Kisangani, DRC. Misinterpretation of test results is challenging to obtaining good feasibility of HIVST among adolescents with poor educational level. Face-to-face post-test counseling seems to be preferred among Kisangani’s adolescents.

          Related collections

          Most cited references10

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: found
          Is Open Access

          Uptake and Acceptability of Oral HIV Self-Testing among Community Pharmacy Clients in Kenya: A Feasibility Study

          Peter M Mugo, Murugi Micheni, Jimmy Shangala … (2017)
          Background While HIV testing and counselling is a key entry point for treatment as prevention, over half of HIV-infected adults in Kenya are unaware they are infected. Offering HIV self-testing (HST) at community pharmacies may enhance detection of undiagnosed infections. We assessed the feasibility of pharmacy-based HST in Coastal Kenya. Methods Staff at five pharmacies, supported by on-site research assistants, recruited adult clients (≥18 years) seeking services indicative of HIV risk. Participants were offered oral HST kits (OraQuick®) at US$1 per test. Within one week of buying a test, participants were contacted for post-test data collection and counselling. The primary outcome was test uptake, defined as the proportion of invited clients who bought tests. Views of participating pharmacy staff were solicited in feedback sessions during and after the study. Results Between November 2015 and April 2016, 463 clients were invited to participate; 174 (38%) were enrolled; and 161 (35% [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 31–39%]) bought a test. Uptake was higher among clients seeking HIV testing compared to those seeking other services (84% vs. 11%, adjusted risk ratio 6.9 [95% CI 4.9–9.8]). Only 4% of non-testers (11/302) stated inability to pay as the reason they did not take up the test. All but one tester reported the process was easy (29%) or very easy (70%). Demand for HST kits persisted after the study and participating service providers expressed interest in continuing to offer the service. Conclusions Pharmacy HST is feasible in Kenya and may be in high demand. The uptake pattern observed suggests that a client-initiated approach is more feasible compared to pharmacy-initiated testing. Price is unlikely to be a barrier if set at about US$1 per test. Further implementation research is required to assess uptake, yield, and linkage to care on a larger scale.
          Article 0 comments Cited 52 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            User acceptability and feasibility of self-testing with HIV rapid tests.

            Vernon J. Lee, Soon Choon Tan, Arul Earnest … (2007)
            Because HIV rapid tests are considered for self-testing, this study aims to determine the user acceptability and feasibility of self-testing. A cross-sectional study was performed on 350 systematically sampled participants across 2 Singapore HIV testing centers using the Abbott Determine HIV 1/2 blood sample rapid test (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL). Participants were surveyed on knowledge of and attitudes toward rapid testing. To determine interrater agreement between self-testing and trained personnel testing, participants performed self-testing with visual instructions, followed by trained personnel testing. Ability to identify test outcomes was determined through interpretation of sample test results. Eighty-nine percent of participants preferred testing in private, but most indicated that confidential counseling by trained counselors was necessary. Almost 90% found the kit easy to use and instructions easy to understand. Nevertheless, 85% failed to perform all steps correctly, especially blood sampling, and 56% had invalid results because of incorrect test performance. Interrater agreement between results from self-testing and trained personnel testing had a kappa value of 0.28. Twelve percent could not correctly determine results using sample tests, including 2% and 7% who read positive and negative samples, respectively, incorrectly. A substantial proportion could not perform self-testing or identify outcomes. Self-testing with the Determine HIV 1/2 kit in Singapore should be deferred.
            Article 0 comments Cited 50 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              Adolescents’ experience of a rapid HIV self-testing device in youth-friendly clinic settings in Cape Town South Africa: a cross-sectional community based usability study

              Philip Smith, Melissa Wallace, Linda-Gail Bekker (2016)
              Abstract Introduction: Since HIV testing in South African adolescents and young adults is sub-optimal, the objective of the current study was to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of an HIV rapid self-testing device in adolescents and young people at the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre and Mobile Clinic. Methods: Self-presenting adolescents and young adults were invited to participate in a study investigating the fidelity, usability and acceptability of the AtomoRapid HIV Rapid self-testing device. Trained healthcare workers trained participants to use the device before the participant conducted the HIV self-test with device usage instructions. The healthcare worker then conducted a questionnaire-based survey to assess outcomes. Results: Of the 224 enrolled participants between 16 and 24 years of age, 155 (69,2%) were female. Overall, fidelity was high; 216 (96,4%) participants correctly completed the test and correctly read and interpreted the HIV test result. There were eight (3,6%) user errors overall; six participants failed to prick their finger even though the lancet fired correctly. There were two user errors where participants failed to use the capillary tube correctly. Participants rated acceptability and usability highly, with debut testers giving significantly higher ratings for both. Younger participants gave significantly higher ratings of acceptability. Conclusions: Adolescents and young adults found HIV self-testing highly acceptable with the AtomoRapid and they used the device accurately. Further research should investigate how, where and when to deploy HIV self-testing as a means to accompany existing strategies in reaching the UNAIDS goal to test 90% of all individuals worldwide.
              Article 0 comments Cited 32 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
                Bookmark
                All references

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Serge Tonen-Wolyec:
                ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7734-7729
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Salomon Batina-Agasa: Role: ConceptualizationRole: MethodologyRole: Supervision
                Jérémie Muwonga: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Visualization
                Ralph-Sydney Mboumba Bouassa: Role: Formal analysisRole: Visualization
                Charles Kayembe Tshilumba: Role: Formal analysisRole: ValidationRole: Visualization
                Laurent Bélec: Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: SupervisionRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Catherine E Oldenburg: Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date (Electronic): 1 July 2019
                Publication date Collection: 2019
                Volume: 14
                Issue: 7
                Electronic Location Identifier: e0218795
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Ecole Doctorale Régionale D’Afrique Centrale en Infectiologie Tropicale, Franceville, Gabon
                [2 ] Faculté de Médecine, Université de Bunia, Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [3 ] Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Université de Kisangani, Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [4 ] Laboratoire National de Référence du Sida et des IST, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [5 ] Programme National de lutte Contre le VIH/SIDA et les IST, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
                [6 ] Laboratoire de virologie, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou, and Université Paris Descartes, Paris Sorbonne Cité, Paris, France
                University of California, UNITED STATES
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7734-7729
                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-19-04892
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218795
                PMC ID: 6602204
                PubMed ID: 31260480
                SO-VID: 3d24814c-4292-42a9-9faa-8b01e96dd0ba
                Copyright © © 2019 Tonen-Wolyec et al
                License:

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Date received : 19 February 2019
                Date accepted : 9 June 2019
                Page count
                Figures: 2, Tables: 4, Pages: 16
                Funding
                The authors received no specific funding for this work.
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Microbiology
                Subject: Medical Microbiology
                Subject: Microbial Pathogens
                Subject: Viral Pathogens
                Subject: Immunodeficiency Viruses
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
                Subject: Pathogens
                Subject: Microbial Pathogens
                Subject: Viral Pathogens
                Subject: Immunodeficiency Viruses
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Organisms
                Subject: Viruses
                Subject: Viral Pathogens
                Subject: Immunodeficiency Viruses
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Organisms
                Subject: Viruses
                Subject: Immunodeficiency Viruses
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Biology and life sciences
                Subject: Organisms
                Subject: Viruses
                Subject: RNA viruses
                Subject: Retroviruses
                Subject: Lentivirus
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Microbiology
                Subject: Medical Microbiology
                Subject: Microbial Pathogens
                Subject: Viral Pathogens
                Subject: Retroviruses
                Subject: Lentivirus
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
                Subject: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
                Subject: Pathogens
                Subject: Microbial Pathogens
                Subject: Viral Pathogens
                Subject: Retroviruses
                Subject: Lentivirus
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Organisms
                Subject: Viruses
                Subject: Viral Pathogens
                Subject: Retroviruses
                Subject: Lentivirus
                Subject: HIV
                Subject: People and Places
                Subject: Population Groupings
                Subject: Age Groups
                Subject: Children
                Subject: Adolescents
                Subject: People and Places
                Subject: Population Groupings
                Subject: Families
                Subject: Children
                Subject: Adolescents
                Subject: Medicine and health sciences
                Subject: Infectious diseases
                Subject: Viral diseases
                Subject: HIV infections
                Subject: Social Sciences
                Subject: Sociology
                Subject: Education
                Subject: Schools
                Subject: Research and Analysis Methods
                Subject: Research Design
                Subject: Survey Research
                Subject: Questionnaires
                Subject: Social Sciences
                Subject: Sociology
                Subject: Education
                Subject: Educational Attainment
                Subject: Medicine and health sciences
                Subject: Public and occupational health
                Subject: Preventive medicine
                Subject: HIV prevention
                Subject: People and Places
                Subject: Population Groupings
                Subject: Professions
                Subject: Supervisors
                Custom metadata
                Data Availability All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
                Data availability:
                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article

                scite_

                Similar content148

                See all similar

                Cited by24

                See all cited by

                Most referenced authors307

                See all reference authors