“Make it more than a pill, make it an experience of health:” results from an open pilot intervention to retain young African American men who have sex with men in PrEP care

ABSTRACT

Uptake and retention in clinical care for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is suboptimal, particularly among young African American men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Deep South. We conducted a two-phase study to develop and implement an intervention to increase PrEP persistence. In Phase I, we conducted focus groups with 27 young African American MSM taking PrEP at a community health center in Jackson, Mississippi to elicit recommendations for the PrEP persistence intervention. We developed an intervention based on recommendations in Phase I, and in Phase II, ten participants were enrolled in an open pilot. Eight participants completed Phase II study activities, including a single intervention session, phone call check-ins, and four assessments (Months 0, 1, 3, and 6). Exit interviews demonstrated a high level of acceptability and satisfaction with the intervention. These formative data demonstrate the initial promise of a novel intervention to improve PrEP persistence among young African American MSM.

KEYWORDS:

• African American
• men who have sex with men
• pre-exposure prophylaxis
• persistence
• retention

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the study participants for volunteering their time, expertise, and experiences during the focus groups and open pilot of the intervention discussed in this manuscript. Further, we would like to thank the staff of Open Arms Health Care Center for their administrative and operational support throughout all phases of the research process detailed in this manuscript.

Author contributions

PAC, ASN, and LAM conceived and designed the study. CSC and WCG wrote the first draft of the paper. CES, TLA, and ASN collected and analyzed the qualitative data contained in this manuscript. CES, IWJ, and BB collected the quantitative data contained in this manuscript. WCG analyzed the quantitative data contained in this manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback on the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health ([grant number R34MH109371]; MPI: Nunn, Chan, Mena). Additional support was provided by a research education program grant from the National Institute of Mental Health ([grant number R25MH083620]; MPI: Nunn, Flanigan).