HIV Disparities Women MMWR

Changes in the Disparity of HIV Diagnosis Rates among Black Women — United States, 2010–2014

Progress has been made in recent years in decreasing HIV diagnoses among women. In the past decade, African American women have achieved the largest decreases in HIV diagnoses with a 42 percent decline from 2005-2014. Despite the decline, in 2015, black women represented 61 percent of diagnoses among women and were about 16 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of HIV infection than white women. While there currently is not a standard method for measuring disparity, the authors of this study used three different measures – absolute rate difference, the diagnosis disparity rate ratio and the Index of Disparity (ID) – to quantify changes in the disparities of HIV diagnoses among black, Hispanic and white women between 2010 and 2014. The absolute rate difference between the group with the highest rate, black women, and the group with the lowest rate, white women, decreased annually from 36.9 in 2010 to 28.3 in 2014. The diagnosis disparity ratio for black women decreased from 1.7 in 2010 to 1.2 in 2014. The ID increased from 2010 to 2011, and then decreased each year from 2012 to 2014. The data provides further evidence that while progress has been made in reducing HIV diagnoses, disparities continue to exist, particularly among African American women. Additionally, culturally-tailored prevention strategies and interventions could contribute to closing the remaining gaps.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES