HIV Testing during Antenatal Care in Vietnam: Who Received it And Who Didn’t?

Mai Do, Tulane University
Lung Vu, Tulane University

Because pregnant women carry an inherent risk of transmitting HIV virus to their child, voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT) should be an integral part of antenatal care (ANC). Despite the increasing number of VCT sites throughout Vietnam, few people have ever used these services. This paper examines the pattern of HIV testing among 933 recent pregnant women. Data come from the 2005 Vietnam Population and AIDS Indicator Survey. Two-level modeling is employed. Preliminary results show that the vast majority of pregnant women were not tested for HIV during ANC; and not all tested received results. Both outcomes are positively associated with individual socio-economic characteristics and knowledge of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Results suggest an expansion of VCT as part of ANC to all pregnant women. Exogeneity test and structural equation modeling will be employed to obtain unbiased estimates of the effects of individual- and community-level factors on HIV testing.