Quality of laboratory performance in testing for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody

In May 1988, the Centers for Disease Control's Model Performance Evaluation Program (Atlanta, Ga) surveyed 1092 laboratories that performed enzyme immunoassays and Western blot tests for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody on mailed plasma samples of known human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody reactivity and that described their laboratory characteristics and testing practices. The study objective was to evaluate the quality of laboratory performance in testing for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody. After identifying relevant variables in univariate analyses, multivariate analyses were performed using stepwise logistic models. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 antibody test performance was independently associated with analytic variables such as commercial test kit used and with nonanalytic variables such as experience, training, and degree requirements of laboratory personnel. These results validate the importance of nonanalytic variables to the quality of outcomes in laboratory testing.