Violence screening and viral load suppression among HIV-positive African American women

Recent research suggests intimate partner violence (IPV) is commonly experienced by many people living with HIV/AIDS, which can complicate their care. Recently, we introduced a novel approach to screening for history of violence among women of color living with HIV that entails a composite measure composed of data from a variety of screening tools. We used this approach to assess the relationship between history of violence and viral suppression among a sample of African American women (n=78) living with HIV and receiving care at an outpatient public health clinic. We were able to determine that 67.9% of the women had a history of violence using the composite measure, and that 38.5% screened positive using multiple screening tools. Although overall viral load suppression rate was high at 79.5%, women with a history of violence were less likely to be virally suppressed when compared to those without such a history (71.7% versus 96.0%, p < 0.05). Our findings suggest using a variety of screening questions at entry and at follow-up care appointments may be key to identifying and supporting African American women survivors who may not disclose violence when first asked. Future research should foster further development, analysis, and use of a variety of screening tools such as those used in this study.