My main focus of interest in this dissertation is to evaluate the relationship
between known risk factor for HIV and HIV testing behavior, with a particular interest
in women. Utilizing data from the National Survey of Family Growth, I conduct both
descriptive and logistic regression analysis to evaluate this relationship. In addition to
examining this relationship for women overall, I also evaluate the differences between
White and Minority women, and compare and contrast this relationship for men versus
women.
In this dissertation, I did find some evidence to indicate that women with factors
that put them at risk for HIV are more likely to be tested than are women without risk,
however the strength of this relationship differed across types of risk factors. Drug use
was consistently stronger in predicting the likelihood of testing than were sexual risk
factors, indicating a ?lag? in public health perception of risk due to heterosexual risk
factors. I also found that African-American women had significantly higher prevalence
of risk than did White women, although no difference was found in the relationship between risk and testing. Finally, sexual risk factors were a substantially stronger
predictor of testing for men than it was for women.
The findings reported in this dissertation have the potential for significant public
health implications and indicate the need for further policies that target the populations
identified in this research. While the evidence in this dissertation and elsewhere does
suggest that these efforts have been successful for homosexual men and drug users, and
marginally successful for women at risk due to heterosexual behavior, it is important that
efforts that target women, especially African-American women, are increased.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-05-7944 |
| Date | 2010 May 1900 |
| Creators | Howden, Lindsay M. |
| Contributors | Fossett, Mark |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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