HIV prevalence in a midwestern emergency department.
 STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositivity of patients 15 years of age and older in our emergency department.
 DESIGN: HIV status was determined anonymously, and the seroprevalence rate was calculated.
 The 95% confidence intervals also were calculated.
 Twenty demographic and predictor categorical variable were cross-tabulated with HIV status to determine associations.
 Only gender and male homosexual preference were significantly associated by Fisher's exact test.
 TYPE OF PARTICIPANTS: Excess serum samples from 454 randomly selected patients 15 years of age and older who required venipuncture for their ED evaluation were included in the study.
 MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of the 454 serum specimens, six (1.32%) were positive for HIV.
 The 95% confidence interval was from 0.27% to 2.37%.
 All six positive patients were men.
 The only statistically significant risk factors associated with HIV seropositivity were male sex (P = .00112) and male homosexual preference (P = .0000).
 CONCLUSION: HIV seropositivity occurs in 1.32% of our ED population over the age of 15 years.
 The only factors that correlate with HIV seropositivity are male homosexual preference and male sex.
