Self-Reported Diagnosis of Autism Is Associated With a Lower Likelihood of HIV Testing

Sexuality and sexual risk behaviors among autistic adults are often overlooked, resulting in inadequate sexual education courses and a reliance on peers or the internet as primary sources of information. Here, we plan to begin to fill this gap by assessing HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) outcomes among autistic adults. Data come from the 2007 NHIS data set, the only nationally representative and publicly available data set to host measures of HIV and autism alongside one another (and the only year of this survey to do so). Survey-weighted models were used to examine the association between self-reported measures of HIV/STIs and self-reported autism diagnosis. Compared with those who had not been told that they have autism, participants with an autism diagnosis had lower odds of ever having an HIV test in their lifetime (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.05; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01 to 0.26). No association was observed between autism diagnosis and plans for an HIV test within the next year, nor did any autistic adults report testing positive for any STI within the past 5 years. These results suggest that further research is needed among the autism spectrum disorder community, particularly in terms of achieving the US goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.