social context of disclosing hiv test results: hiv testing in tanzania

Researcher: Do you have other reasons which hinder you from
disclosing?
Respondent: You know sometimes the test instruments can reveal false
results. I can spread the information that I am infected
when actually I am not… like now I am starting to feel well.
Maybe the test result was wrong. I will tell my family only
after being tested for the second time. People may start
spreading information that I am positive when I am not.
Why should I put myself into such situation? After all, why
should I tell them? I will tell my family after getting the
results of the second test.
The findings indicate that there is a close relationship between people with whom
the respondents discussed taking an HIV test and the people to whom they disclosed their
test results. Therefore, we briefly consider what respondents said about having talked to
others about getting tested for HIV.
About one-quarter (26 percent) of the respondents who had just taken an HIV test
had discussed their decision to test with their spouses before getting tested. Overall, there
was little difference between men and women in this regard. However, a higher
proportion of men (32 percent) talked with their wife about getting tested than women did
with their husband (23 percent). Some respondents discussed the testing decision with a
sister or brother. In this group, more women than men (29 percent vs. 14 percent)
discussed the test with their sisters, and more men (27 percent) than women (6 percent)
confided in a brother that they planned to get tested for HIV. Female respondents were
also more likely to discuss with their mothers their intent to take an HIV test than male
respondents (20 percent vs. 5 percent). Thus, gender directly affects who talks to whom
about sensitive issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS.
When these data are compared with the data on the kinds of people to whom
respondents disclose their results, a similar pattern emerges. If we consider all
respondents together without taking into account the passage of time, we find that many
respondents disclosed their results to their spouses (42 percent). Men were more likely to
do so than women (55 percent vs. 34 percent). One of every ten respondents disclosed to
their mothers (12 percent), about 18 percent to their sisters, and about 19 percent to their
brothers. Although there was no significant difference between men and women in terms
of disclosing to their sisters, more men tended to disclose to their brothers than women
did to their brothers. Our analysis shows that most people tend to disclose their test
results to people whom they had involved in the earlier discussions of whether to take an
HIV test or not. Very close members of the family were the most likely to be involved in
both of these decisions: getting tested and sharing test results. ‘Close members of the
family’ refers to individuals like mother, father, brother, and sister.
These findings obtained from respondents interviewed some four to eight weeks
after testing are similar to the responses from people living with HIV/AIDS. In this latter
group, more men (57 percent) disclosed to their spouses than did women (22 percent).
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