Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virology. Aug 12, 2015; 4(3): 245-254
Published online Aug 12, 2015. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v4.i3.245
Women’s willingness to be tested for human immunodeficiency virus during pregnancy: A review
Merav Ben-Natan, Yelena Hazanov
Merav Ben-Natan, Yelena Hazanov, Pat Matthews School of Nursing, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera 38100, Israel
Merav Ben-Natan, Department of Nursing, School of Health Professions, Tel Aviv University Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera 38100, Israel
Author contributions: Ben-Natan M and Hazanov Y contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Merav Ben-Natan, PhD, Pat Matthews School of Nursing, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, P.O.B. 169, Hadera 38100, Israel. meraav@hy.health.gov.il
Telephone: +972-4-6304367 Fax: +972-4-6304730
Received: December 30, 2014
Peer-review started: January 2, 2015
First decision: March 6, 2015
Revised: May 28, 2015
Accepted: July 21, 2015
Article in press: July 23, 2015
Published online: August 12, 2015
Processing time: 225 Days and 13.5 Hours
Abstract

Mother-to-child-transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a primary cause of pediatric infections with HIV. Many of these infections involve women who were not tested early enough in pregnancy, or who did not receive prevention services. HIV testing of pregnant women is considered to be one of the key strategies for preventing mother-to-child-transmission of HIV, but HIV testing rates among pregnant women in various countries remain suboptimal. Understanding the factors relating to women’s willingness to be tested for HIV during pregnancy is critical for developing strategies to increase HIV testing rates among pregnant women. Extensive research points to various factors relating to women’s willingness to be tested for HIV during pregnancy, and various recommendations aimed at improving testing rates among pregnant women have been suggested based on the research. In light of the goals set by the United Nations to reduce the rate of infants infected with HIV, it is necessary to summarize what is currently known regarding factors related to women’s willingness to be tested for HIV during pregnancy. The purpose of this review is therefore to examine factors related to women’s willingness to be tested for HIV during pregnancy, and to summarize recommendations for practice and further research.

Keywords: Female; Human immunodeficiency virus infection; Pregnancy; Testing/screening; Patient acceptance of health care; Research

Core tip: The willingness of women to be tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during pregnancy is a complex phenomenon. There is frequent inconsistence in research results; however, studies have shown that certain major factors are steadily identified over time as associated with the phenomenon. Numerous factors related to pregnant women’s willingness to be tested suggest multiple possible interventions to maximize HIV testing efficiency and increase testing rates. There is a need in further research of the phenomenon, as the majority of the research literature focuses on sub-Saharan Africa.