Awareness of and attitudes toward pre-exposure prophylaxis among African American women living in low-income neighborhoods in a Southeastern city

ABSTRACT

African American women in the South are disproportionately affected by HIV but have often been ignored in HIV prevention efforts, including in the rollout of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). To inform strategies to promote PrEP awareness and access in this population, we conducted a venue-based community survey with 53 African American women living in low-income neighborhoods of a Southeastern city to understand women’s knowledge of and attitudes toward PrEP. Awareness of PrEP was very low (37%) with only 16% being aware that PrEP is used for HIV prevention. The vast majority of women (85%) reported that they would use or would consider using PrEP, most frequently citing a general interest in HIV prevention or a lack of awareness of their partners’ HIV status as motivations for their interest. Some women expressed concerns about side effects or low perceived HIV risk as disincentives for PrEP use. Information regarding side effects and HIV risk assessments will be needed to ensure the acceptable delivery of PrEP in this population.

KEYWORDS:

• PrEP
• African American
• women
• awareness
• Southeastern US

Disclosure statement

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

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. This consent was obtained verbally to protect participant anonymity.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health [R34 MH104081] and the UNC Center for AIDS Research [P30 AI50410]. Dr Hill was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health [K01 MH121186] and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [T32 HS000032]. Dr Golin was partially supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [K24 HD069204]. Dr. Lightfoot was partially supported by the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, a Prevention Research Center supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [1U48DP005017].