Population level usage of health services, and HIV testing and care, prior to decentralization of antiretroviral therapy in Agago District in rural Northern Uganda (BMC Health Services Research)

Background: Decentralization of ART services scaled up significantly with the country wide roll out of option B plus in Uganda. Little work has been undertaken to examine population level access to HIV care particularly in hard to reach areas in rural Africa. Most work on ART scale up has been done at health facility level which omits people not accessing healthcare in the community. This study describes health service usage, particularly HIV testing and care in 2/6 parishes of Lapono sub-county of northern Uganda, prior to introduction of ART services in Lira Kato Health Centre (a local lower-level health centre III), as part of ART decentralization. Methods: Household and individual questionnaires were administered to household members (aged 15–59 years). Logit random effects models were used to test for differences in proportions (allowing for clustering within villages). Results: 2124 adults from 1351 households were interviewed (755 [36 %] males, 1369 [64 %] females). 2051 (97 %) participants reported seeking care locally for fever, most on foot and over half at Lira Kato Health Centre. 574 (76 %) men and 1156 (84 %) women reported ever-testing for HIV (P