African American and Hispanic patient acceptance of HIV/AIDS rapid testing in the dental care setting in underserved communities

Issues:  African Americans and Hispanics continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV in the United States.  Rapid HIV testing in non-traditional clinical settings allows a promising approach for facilitating earlier diagnosis of HIV.  The dental setting is a logical venue to consider for HIV testing as individuals are likely to have more frequent visits to a dentist compared to other health care providers.  Additionally, rapid HIV testing using oral swabs may be more amenable to dentists and dental hygienists than screening methods involving blood samples.  However, little data are available to inform the feasibility of offering such services among underserved populations.

Description:  We partnered with two community health centers in high-HIV prevalence areas to explore patients' and providers' perspectives about oral HIV rapid testing in the dental care setting. We will conduct patient exit interviews after receiving an offer for testing, dental record reviews, and qualitative interviews with dentists and dental hygienists to describe: 1) patient acceptance rate of testing, 2) reasons patients accept or reject testing, and 3) dentists' and dental hygienists' attitudes toward offering and conducting testing.

Lessons Learned:  Data collected in this study will help determine feasibility of HIV screening in the dental setting using an oral swab by informing issues associated with minority patients' acceptance of testing as well as providers' perspectives towards implementation of testing.  

Recommendations:  Further studies should explore implementation of oral HIV rapid testing in non-community health centers as well as cost-effectiveness issues of testing in a variety of dental settings and populations.