Perceptions of and preferences for PrEP use among African American women and providers in the U.S. South: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: African American (AA) women in the U.S. South experience significant HIV incidence, and efforts to support antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake and maintenance among this group have been insufficient. This study aimed to explore perceptions, attitudes, and implementation preferences surrounding PrEP use for AA women in the U.S. South. METHODS AND MEASURES: The study team conducted qualitative interviews with AA cisgender women clients (n = 21) and their providers (n = 20) in Federally Qualified Health Centers and HIV clinics in Alabama. The research team employed directed qualitative content analysis to analyze interview data. RESULTS: Five themes emerged: a) inconsistent access to PrEP and PrEP knowledge, b) need for improving low PrEP awareness, c) managing hesitancy to prescribe or use PrEP, d) perceived HIV vulnerability and inherent stigma, and e) normalizing PrEP as part of routine sexual healthcare to increase uptake and maintenance. Interviews revealed an openness towards PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy for AA, cisgender women in Alabama. CONCLUSION: Improving PrEP uptake and maintenance among AA women in the U.S. South must go beyond increasing awareness to improving PrEP access and trust through visibility of AA women's PrEP use and incorporating PrEP education and services into routine sexual healthcare.

A mixed methods evaluation assessing the feasibility of implementing a PrEP data dashboard in the Southeastern United States.

BACKGROUND: Alabama is one of seven priority states for the National Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative due to a disproportionate burden of rural infections. To reverse growing infection rates, the state must increase its focus on prevention efforts, including novel strategies. One such approach is to utilize dashboards that visualize real-time data on the pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) care continuum to assist in prioritizing evidence-based preventative care for those most vulnerable for HIV infection. METHODS: We conducted a mixed methods evaluation to ascertain stakeholders' perceptions on the acceptability, feasibility, appropriateness, and usability of a PrEP care continuum dashboard, as well as gain insight on ways to improve the activities necessary to sustain it. Clinicians, administrators, and data personnel from participating sites in Alabama completed surveys (n = 9) and participated in key informant interviews (n = 10) to better understand their experiences with the prototype data dashboard and to share feedback on how it can be modified to best fit their needs. RESULTS: Surveys and interviews revealed that all participants find the pilot data dashboard to be an acceptable, feasible, and appropriate intervention for clinic use. Overall, stakeholders find the pilot dashboard to be usable and helpful in administrative efforts, such as report and grant writing; however, additional refining is needed in order to reduce burden and optimize usefulness. Participants voiced concerns about their site's abilities to sustain the dashboard, including the lack of systematized PrEP protocols and limited funds and staff time dedicated to PrEP data collection, cleaning, and upload. CONCLUSION: Study participants from clinics providing HIV prevention services, including PrEP, in Alabama voiced interest in sustaining and refining a data dashboard that tracks clients across the PrEP care continuum. Despite viewing the platform itself as an acceptable, feasible, and appropriate intervention, participants agreed that efforts need to be focused on standardizing PrEP data collection protocols in order to ensure consistent, accurate data capture and that limited funds and staff time are barriers to the sustained implementation of the dashboard in practice.

Protocol for WeExPAnd: a prospective, mixed-methods pilot demonstration study to increase access to pre-exposure prophylaxis among women vulnerable to HIV infection in the Southern USA.

INTRODUCTION: African American women (AA), particularly those living in the Southeastern USA, experience disproportionately high rates of HIV infection. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective HIV prevention tool that may circumvent barriers to traditional HIV prevention tools, such as condom use; however, very little is known about how to improve PrEP access and uptake among AA women who may benefit from PrEP use. This project aims to understand how to increase PrEP access among AA women in the rural Southern USA, which may ultimately affect HIV incidence in this population. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The goal of the current study is to systematically adapt a patient-provider communication tool to increase PrEP uptake among AA women receiving care at a federally qualified health centre in Alabama. We will use an iterative implementation process, by assessing the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary impact of the tool on PrEP uptake, using a pilot preintervention/postintervention design (N=125). We will evaluate women's reasons for declining a referral to a PrEP provider, reasons for incomplete referrals, reasons for not initiating PrEP after a successful referral and ongoing PrEP use at 3 and 12 months after PrEP initiation among our sample. The proposed work will significantly contribute to our understanding of factors impacting PrEP uptake and use among AA women, particularly in underserved areas in the Deep South that are heavily impacted by the HIV epidemic and experience worse HIV-related health outcomes relative to other areas in the USA. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This protocol has been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, AL; protocol 300004276). All participants will review a detailed informed consent form approved by the IRB and will provide written or verbal informed consent prior to enrolment. Results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed manuscripts, reports, and local, national and international presentations. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04373551.

Accessing Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP): Perceptions of Current and Potential PrEP Users in Birmingham, Alabama.

Limited studies to date assess barriers to and facilitators of PrEP uptake and utilization using a patient-centered access to care framework, among diverse socio-demographic groups, or in the U.S. Deep South, an area with disproportionate HIV burden. We examine perceptions of PrEP access in qualitative interviews with 44 current and potential PrEP users in Birmingham, Alabama. Participants were 32 years old on average, 66% Black, 66% gay or lesbian, 70% male, and 66% single. Perceived barriers to PrEP access included: lack of PrEP awareness and advertisement; sexuality-related stigma; time and resource constraints; and concerns about the adequacy and technical quality of PrEP services. Perceived facilitators to PrEP access were: PrEP-related information gathering and sharing; increased dialogue and visibility around PrEP; social, programmatic, and clinical support; and, lastly, self-preservation; personal motivation; and treatment self-efficacy. Results point to opportunities to address complex barriers to equitable PrEP access using multilevel and multimodal solutions.

Brief Report: The Right People, Right Places, and Right Practices: Disparities in PrEP Access Among African American Men, Women, and MSM in the Deep South.

Disproportionate rates of HIV are observed in Black women and men, especially in the Southern United States. We observed limited uptake of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) services in our Southern community among these groups, particularly Black men who have sex with men relative to new HIV cases in Birmingham, AL; 18% accessed PrEP services compared with 50% of new HIV cases. Further research is needed to understand PrEP access and uptake in high-risk populations.