Geographical variations and factors associated with recent HIV testing prevalence in Ghana: spatial mapping and complex survey analyses of the 2014 demographic and health surveys.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the factors associated with recent HIV testing and to develop an HIV testing prevalence surface map using spatial interpolation techniques to identify geographical areas with low and high HIV testing rates in Ghana.

DESIGN: Secondary analysis of Demographic and Health Survey.

SETTING: Rural and urban Ghana PARTICIPANTS: The study sample comprised 9380 women and 3854 men of 15-49 years.

RESULTS: We found that 13% of women and 6% of men of Ghana had tested for HIV in the past 12 months. For women, being within the age groups of 15-39 years, being currently married, attainment of post-secondary education, having only one sexual partner and dwelling in certain regions with reference to greater Accra (Volta, Eastern, Upper West and Upper East) were associated with a higher likelihood of HIV testing. For men, being older than 19 years, attainment of post-secondary education and dwelling in the Upper East region with reference to the greater Accra region were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of HIV testing. The surface map further revealed intra-regional level differences in HIV testing estimates.

CONCLUSION: Given the results, HIV testing must be expanded with equitable testing resource allocation that target areas within the regions in Ghana with low HIV testing prevalence. Men should be encouraged to be tested for HIV.