HSV Serologic Testing for Pregnant Women: Willingness to Be Tested and Factors Affecting Testing

Table 4

Summary of the Understanding Counseling Questionnaire. Data are expressed as (%) of participants answering the true/false questions correctly.

	Sample (𝑁=303)	Subgroup willing to be tested; (𝑛=134)	Subgroup unwilling to be tested; (𝑛=169)
Visit 1
Genital herpes is a contagious virus spread by intimate skin-to-skin contact.	95	94	96
Genital herpes is a very common disease.	97	>99	96
You cannot spread herpes to your newborn at the time of delivery.	85	85	86
Even if you have genital herpes, it is still possible to have a healthy baby.	97	97	97
There is no test you can take to find out if you have the virus.	95	94	95
There is no cure for genital herpes.	(𝑛=302); 86	87	(𝑛=168); 85
HSV-1 (the cold sore virus) can cause genital herpes.	70	68	71
Visit 2	HSV seronegative participants (𝑛=107)
Genital herpes cannot be spread by intimate skin-to-skin contact.	86
Genital herpes can be active without any visible signs or symptoms of an outbreak.	98
If you get genital herpes late in your pregnancy, your baby will have a high risk of getting herpes.	86
Even though you have tested negative, it is still possible that your partner has genital herpes.	100
You can reduce your risk of getting herpes by practicing safer sex.	100
If your partner has genital herpes, he can take medicine to treat his herpes and reduce the risk of spreading it to you.	95
If you get HSV-1 (the cold sore virus) genital infection during your pregnancy, you can pass it on to your baby.	75
Visit 2	HSV seropositive participants (𝑛=27)
Herpes is less common than diabetes or asthma.	92
Once diagnosed, it is difficult to know how long you have had genital herpes.	96
Genital herpes can be treated to reduce the risk of having outbreaks.	100
You cannot spread genital herpes to your newborn at the time of delivery.	85
There are things you can do to reduce the risk of spreading genital herpes to your baby at the time of delivery.	100
Genital herpes can be cured.	88
If you get HSV-1 (the cold sore virus) genital infection during your pregnancy, you can pass it on to your baby.	81