HIV Testing at Visits to US Emergency Departments, 2018

Background: An early HIV diagnosis improves patient outcomes, reduces the burden of undiagnosed HIV, and limits transmission. There is a need for an updated assessment of HIV testing rates in the emergency department (ED). Setting: The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey sampling ED visits were weighted to give an estimate of ED visits across all US states in 2018. Methods: We analyzed patients aged 13-64 years without known HIV and estimated ED visits with HIV testing and then stratified by race, ethnicity, and region. Descriptive statistics and mapping were used to illustrate and compare patient, visit, and hospital characteristics for visits with HIV testing. Results: Of 83.0 million weighted visits to EDs in 2018 by patients aged 13-64 years without a known HIV infection (based on 13,237 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey sample visits), HIV testing was performed in 1.05% of visits. HIV testing was more frequent for patients aged 13-34 years compared with that for patients aged 35-64 years (1.32% vs. 0.82%, P = 0.056), Black patients compared with that for White and other patients (1.73% vs. 0.79% and 0.41%, P = 0.002), Hispanic or Latino patients compared with that for non-Hispanic or Latino patients (2.18% vs. 0.84%, P = 0.001), and patients insured by Medicaid compared with that for patients insured by private or other insurance (1.71% vs. 0.64% and 0.96%, P = 0.003). HIV testing rates were the highest in the Northeast (1.72%), followed by the South (1.05%). Conclusions: HIV testing occurred in a minority of ED visits. There are differences in rates of HIV testing by race, ethnicity, and location. Although rates of testing have increased, rates of ED-based HIV testing remain low.

Automated summary

The study found that in 2018, only 1.05% of patients aged 13-64 without known HIV infection were tested for HIV in the emergency department. There were significant differences in testing rates among different age groups, races, ethnicities, regions, and insurance types.