A survey on use of online sold fingertip blood HIV rapid test kits for self-testing

ObjectiveTo understand the use of online sold fingertip blood HIV rapid test kits for self-testing and find its problems, provide evidence for the improvement of HIV self-testing.

MethodsThrough WeChat group, QQ group, and Weibo in men who have sex with men (MSM), people who purchased and used online sold HIV fingertip blood test kits were recruited in the survey using a self-designed questionnaire. A qualitative interview was conducted in responsible persons of sales department in main domestic manufacturers of HIV rapid test kits.

ResultsA total of 2752 people completed the questionnaires, the median of age was 27 years old (14–86 years old), Among these people, 1842 (66.9%) had education level of college or above, 1872 (68.0%) had full-time job, 1033 (37.5%) reported that the sellers provided post-test consulting services, while 66.0% reported that the consulting services failed to solve the problems. In the latest self-testing, 241 (8.8%) persons were HIV positive, and 1778 (64.6%) persons were negative. Among 733 with uncertain results, 74.2% (544/733) had problems in kits operation, 9.9% (73/733) had related errors due to the misunderstanding of instruction manual, and 12.6% (92/733) had problem with the results interpretation.

ConclusionA number of HIV-infected people are not aware of their infection status, for whom HIV test can be promoted through internet. It is suggested to improve the consulting services, strengthen the management of HIV rapid test kits production and standardize the operation procedure of kits users to ensure the scientificity of HIV self-testing.