ArticleDemographic research2010
Asking God about the date you will die: HIV testing as a zone of uncertainty in rural Malawi.
Article in Demographic research, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- You Know What I Know: Interviewer Knowledge Effects in Subjective Expectation Elicitation.Demography · 2021Trial
- Scared Straight or Scared to Death? Fatalism in Response to Disease Risks.Economic journal (London, England) · 2025Article
- Surviving Bad News: Health Information Without Treatment Options.American economic review. Insights · 2025Article
- Taking care to the patients: a qualitative evaluation of a community-based ART care program in northern Namibia.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- The cultural politics of secrecy during HIV home counselling and testing campaigns in Kenya.Culture, health & sexuality · 2021Article
- Bridging the Efficacy-Effectiveness Gap in HIV Programs: Lessons From Economics.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2019Review
- HIV testing experiences in Nairobi slums: the good, the bad and the ugly.BMC public health · 2019Article
- How to "Live a Good Life": Aging and HIV Testing in Rural South Africa.Journal of aging and health · 2019Article
- The Flexibility of Fertility Preferences in a Context of Uncertainty.Population and development review · 2018Article
- Implementing "insider" ethnography: lessons from theQualitative research : QR · 2015Article
- Ideals as Anchors for Relationship Experiences.American sociological review · 2015Article
- Accurate information as a tool to decrease HIV test refusals in research studies.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2015Article
- Popular Moralities and Institutional Rationalities in Malawi's Struggle Against AIDS.Population and development review · 2014Article
- 'It means there is doubt in the house': perceptions and experiences of HIV testing in rural Malawi.Culture, health & sexuality · 2014Article
- Pregnant women's experiences of routine counselling and testing for HIV in Eastern Uganda: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2013Article
- Living with HIV postdiagnosis: a qualitative study of the experiences of Nairobi slum residents.BMJ open · 2013Article
- The social construction of AIDS during a time of evolving access to antiretroviral therapy in rural Malawi.Culture, health & sexuality · 2013Article
- Testing differences: the implementation of Western HIV testing norms in sub-Saharan Africa.Culture, health & sexuality · 2012Article
- Global discourses and experiential speculation: Secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians dissect the HIV/AIDS epidemic.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2011Article
- Working outside of the box: how HIV counselors in Sub-Saharan Africa adapt Western HIV testing norms.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Testing for HIV is becoming more available in Africa. Global advocates of testing see it as key to AIDS prevention. However, testing is not always perceived as a good thing by people at risk. Here, we consider testing from the perspective of people in a high-prevalence community. Using qualitative data from rural Malawi, we show that the decision to test is not as straightforward as suggested in the testing advocacy literature, but is marked by uncertainty and ambivalence. Reluctance to test is connected to the perception that testing inevitably leads to a positive diagnosis, and subsequent deterioration and death. This fear is in turn linked to overestimation of the transmissibility of HIV. We recommend that testing advocates address this concern that being tested means having a death sentence pronounced, and emphasize the benefits of testing for the majority who are HIV-negative, as well as the minority who are HIV-positive.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.