ABSTRACT
This study investigated the association between interest in Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in the US using Google Health Trends as a source of big data and state policy variables of Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and initiation of PrEP Assistance Programs (PrEP-AP). As of December 2019, thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have accepted federal Medicaid funding provided through the ACA to expand eligibility to low-income adults. Among these expansion states, eight states also implemented PrEP-AP, a program that finances PrEP. A difference-in-differences approach estimated how changes in Google search for PrEP before and after the expansion differed across expansion and non-expansion states. Analyses also gauged whether the magnitude of the correlation between Medicaid expansions and Google searches was higher in states that also initiated PrEP-AP. Findings indicated that the Medicaid expansions were associated with a higher share of Google searches for PrEP keywords (, S.E. =.36, ). Moreover, the magnitude of correlation for some keywords was higher in states that also implemented PrEP-APs.
Acknowledgment
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of NIH (grant number R01AI147487), the National Institute of Mental Health (grant number R01MH114847), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (award number DP1 DA048570). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH. No financial disclosures or conflicts of interest were reported by the authors of this paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).