‘Oh, I don’t really want to bother with that:’ gay and bisexual young men's perceptions of barriers to PrEP information and uptake

Abstract

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily oral pill for HIV prevention demonstrated to be effective for adults, was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use with young people weighing at least 35 kilograms. Given that young people aged 13-19 years account for a disproportionate share of new US HIV infections, PrEP presents an important opportunity. There has been limited effort, however, to increase PrEP awareness and uptake among young people. While prior work has identified barriers young people face in getting PrEP, effective strategies for overcoming these barriers have not yet been identified. This paper presents results from interviews with 15-19 year old gay and bisexual young men about their knowledge and perceptions of PrEP, and the barriers they perceive. Results suggest that participants were aware of PrEP but confused by the details of insurance coverage and out-of-pocket costs. Participants also felt parents and providers would not be knowledgeable or supportive, and were reluctant to share their own use of PrEP on social media. Suggested next steps include online parent and provider education, systemic health care reform to streamline and simplify access to preventative care and awareness campaigns that meet youth where they are on popular platforms.

Keywords:

• Youth
• sexual minority
• LGBTQ+
• PrEP
• social media

Acknowledgements

We thank Reno Stephens for technical assistance with this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A pseudonym, as are all subsequent proper names.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported here was supported in part by a grant from the Delaney Fund for Research and Communication at Northwestern University and by the US National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (Grant Number TL1TR001423).