Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has demonstrated efficacy for HIV prevention, yet uptake of PrEP among populations in urgent need of prevention tools (eg, Black sexual minority men) is limited, and stigma and medical mistrust remain strong barriers to accessing PrEP.
Purpose: To evaluate a test of concept brief intervention to address stigma and medical mistrust as barriers to PrEP uptake using novel latent profile analysis.
Methods: Participants (N = 177) residing in the southeastern US were randomized to 1 of 4 arms to establish the potential impact of a brief, stigma focused counseling intervention (referred to as Jumpstart ) to increase PrEP uptake. We estimated intervention effect size (Cramer's V) for PrEP uptake and then explored differential intervention effects across latent profiles of psychosocial barriers to PrEP use.
Results: The intervention resulted in small, but meaningful effect size, with self-reported PrEP uptake increasing across Jumpstart conditions with the control condition reporting 24% uptake and Jumpstart plus text/phone calls (the most intensive intervention arm) reporting 37% uptake, and a similar pattern emerging for biologically confirmed PrEP use. Among participants 30 and older, Jumpstart participants were more likely to move to a postintervention profile with fewer barriers than control participants and reported the highest uptake of PrEP.
Conclusions: Addressing social/emotional barriers to PrEP uptake is an essential component of bridging the gap between advances being made in biomedical forms of HIV prevention, and establishing and supporting access to those advances.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04201327.
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