Researchers observed responses from 147,000 Americans aged 18 to 64, obtained through surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2000 through 2005.
Of the roughly 22 percent of high-risk individuals who did receive testing, only half of those did so of their own accord. Other tests were administered through health insurance applications, military evaluations, regular checkups or other methods.
But researchers are reasonably optimistic, with 27 percent of people at highest risk planning on getting tested in the coming year.
“The [AIDS prevention] information is getting out there. High-risk groups are appropriately assessing their risk and are interested in testing,” says Brian Pence, an epidemiologist at Duke University and one of the authors of the study. “And yet there’s this gap between intention and action.”
