Substance Use and Testing Sexual Partners Using HIV Self-tests

• Published in: AIDS and behavior 2020-10, Vol.24 (10), p.2856-2862
• Main Authors: Dolezal, Curtis, Rael, Christine Tagliaferri, Balán, Iván C., Giguere, Rebecca, Lentz, Cody, Lopez-Rios, Javier, Sheinfil, Alan Z., Febo, Irma, Carballo-Diéguez, Alex
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Drug abuse; Drug use; Drugs; Female; Gays & lesbians; Health Psychology; HIV; HIV Infections - prevention & control; Homosexuality, Male - psychology; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infectious Diseases; Male; Mass Screening - methods; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Men; Men who have sex with men; Mens health; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Public Health; Risk Reduction Behavior; Self tests; Sexual behavior; Sexual Partners; Sexually transmitted diseases; STD; Substance abuse; Substance use; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Transgender persons; Transgender Persons - psychology; Womens health
• ISSN: 1090-7165; 1573-3254; 1573-3254
• DOI: 10.1007/s10461-020-02834-0

HIV self-tests (HIVST) provide the possibility of testing partners prior to sexual activity. This study examines the role of substance use among men who have sex with men (n = 123) and transgender women (n = 13) who were provided HIVST to use with potential sex partners. Several reported avoiding/delaying alcohol (44%) or drug use (27%) because they intended to use HIVST. Those who used HIVST with alcohol (37%) or drugs (24%) did not differ from those who did not on number of partners asked, proportion who agreed, or intentions to use HIVST. A minority reported problems caused by substances. Ten did not ask someone to test because they were too drunk/high. Fourteen said it was fairly or very hard to use HIVST when under the influence. Eleven reported substances caused problems when discussing or administering HIVST, but only two of those felt the problems were major.