Uptake of online HIV-related continuing medical education training among primary care providers in Southeast United States, 2017–2018

ABSTRACT

Primary care providers play a vital role for HIV prevention and care in high burden areas of the Southeast United States. Studies reveal that only a third of these providers had previous HIV-related training. We evaluated the effects of targeted online continuing medical education training on HIV-related knowledge, attitudes and practices among providers in the Southeast. During April 2017–February 2018, we administered baseline and six-month follow-up surveys to assess changes attributed to online training among a representative sample of providers from six Southeast locations. Data were analyzed using logistic regression analysis (p < 0.05). Baseline and follow-up surveys were completed by 349 participants (61.2% female, 64.6% white, 69.6% physicians, and 27.5% aged 40 years or less); 18% (n = 63) of whom visited online training websites sent following the baseline survey. Comparing baseline versus follow-up responses, providers who completed online training were half as likely to identify “patients’ age” (30% vs. 15%) and “patients’ race” (3% vs. 1.4%) as barriers to discussing sex with clients; survey responses by participants who declined training remained unchanged. Based on baseline versus follow-up responses, providers who visited online training websites were more likely to become familiar with preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) (38% vs. 58%); participants who declined training remained unchanged at 45%. No impact on clinical practices such as PrEP prescriptions was identified. Targeted online training can enhance HIV readiness and should be explored for providers in the Southeast, particularly for enhancing PrEP service delivery.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Dr. Kate Buchacz and other members of the CDC K-BAP Study Team for their scientific consultation and project support. We are also grateful to the K-BAP providers for their participation. Lastly, we thank the data collection and data security teams at Altarum Institute for their invaluable contribution.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author Contributions

KH and MS jointly conceived and designed the study. KH drafted and revised the manuscript. CD conducted the data analysis and contributed to the interpretation of data. All authors gave final approval to the version of the paper being submitted.

Ethical approval

All procedures for human subjects research were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments. This study was reviewed and approved by the Chesapeake Institutional Review Board on June 23, 2016. The United States Government, Office of Management and Budget (OMB # 0920-1160) approved the data collection authorization on February 1, 2017.

Additional information

Funding

The K-BAP Study was funded under contract # 200-2015-F-87651 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention).