This study contributes to the dialogue on the
prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission
(PMTCT) through the use of HIV and antenatal care
(ANC) integrated services. The determinants of
antenatal HIV testing in Zimbabwe were explored.
Multilevel logistic regression models were applied
to data for 8471 women from 406 clusters who gave
birth in the 5 years preceding Zimbabwe Demographic
and Health Surveys conducted in 2005/6 and 2010/11.
The uptake of antenatal HIV testing was found to be
determined by a wide range of individual-level
factors relating to women’s economic and demographic
status, as well as HIV-related factors, including
HIV awareness and stigma within the community.
Important individual-level enabling and perceived
need factors included high socioeconomic status, not
having observed HIV-related stigma and knowledge of
HIV status (based on a previous HIV test), such that
these groups of individuals had a significantly
higher likelihood of being tested for HIV during
pregnancy than their counterparts of lower
socioeconomic status, and who had observed
HIV-related stigma or did not know their HIV status.
The results further revealed that community HIV
awareness is important for improving antenatal HIV
testing, while stigma is associated with reduced
testing uptake. Most contextual community-level
factors were not found to have much effect on the
uptake of antenatal HIV testing. Therefore, policies
should focus on individual-level predisposing and
enabling factors to improve the uptake of antenatal
HIV testing in Zimbabwe.