Correlates of HIV testing among women in Malawi: Results from the 2006 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey

Abstract

We report a study of women 15-49 years aimed at assessing correlates of HIV testing and having received test results in a nationally representative survey of women in Malawi. A total of 26 259 women were recruited into the study, of whom 3712 (14.1%) had ever been tested for HIV infection and received their results. We found that age and education were not significantly associated with HIV testing but marital status, wealth, region were. Contrary to our expectations that women who had delivered a child were more likely to have been ever tested when accessing prenatal and intra-partum care, we found that women who had delivered a child in the 2 years before the survey were less likely to have ever been tested. We suggest that by 2006 when the survey was conducted, prenatal and intra-partum care were not important avenues for HIV testing in Malawi. © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.