Background/objective: HIV/AIDS is a public health problem that is transmitted by sexual risk behaviors (SRB). Literature suggests that HIV risk perception is a motivator toward SRB prevention. There are no cultural adapted scale to assess HIV risk perception in the Latin American context. The objective of this research was to develop a scale to assess HIV risk perception in young people and adults in a Spanish-speaking context. Method: Cross-sectional instrumental study, with a time-space sample of students from the Chilean city with the highest HIV rates. Participants (n=524) has between 17 and 39 years old, where 51% are women, 84.4% said to be heterosexual and 43.7% said not to have been tested for HIV/AIDS. Results: final scale has 9 items and 2 dimensions: (1) Perceived risk susceptibility and (2) Perceived risk gravity. The identified structure provides adequate levels of reliability (ω>.8) and presents evidence of validity, based on the internal structure of the test (i.e. using ESEM) and on the relationship to other variables (i.e. risky sex behaviors scale). In addition to showing strong invariance between the measures of men and women. Conclusions: The HIV risk perception scale has adequate psychometric properties to assess HIV risk perception in equivalent samples.
Timing of HIV diagnosis relative to pregnancy and postpartum HIV care continuum outcomes among Latin American women, 2000 to 2017