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Factors Associated with Awareness of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Among Persons Who Inject Drugs in Philadelphia: National HIV Behavioral Surveillance, 2015

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Abstract

Persons who inject drugs (PWID) continue to experience disproportionate HIV burden. Though studies demonstrate PWID find pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) acceptable, awareness and uptake remains low. Data from the 2015 PWID cycle of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (n = 612) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) were analyzed to evaluate how socio-demographics and behavioral factors impact PrEP awareness. Only 12.4% of PWID surveyed were PrEP-aware and 2.6% reported receiving a prescription. Factors associated with PrEP awareness included having at least some college education (aOR 2.13, 95% CI 1.03, 4.43), sharing paraphernalia (aOR 2.37, 95% CI 1.23, 4.56), obtaining syringes/needles primarily from a syringe exchange program (aOR 2.28, 95% CI 1.35, 3.87), STI testing (aOR 1.71, 95% CI 1.01, 2.89) and drug treatment (aOR 2.81, 95% CI 1.62, 4.87). Accessing prevention and health services increased the odds of being PrEP-aware; however, awareness was low overall. Additional promotion efforts are warranted.

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Funding

Supported by Grant No. 5 U1BPS003253 and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health and Prevention, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, 3215 Market Street, Room 454, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Alexis Roth & Brogan Piecara

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Nguyen Tran & Seth Welles

  3. Philadelphia Department of Public Health, AIDS Activities Coordinating Office, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jennifer Shinefeld & Kathleen Brady

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  1. Alexis Roth
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  2. Nguyen Tran
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  3. Brogan Piecara
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Correspondence to Alexis Roth.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the City of Philadelphia Institutional Review Board. This study does not contain animals.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Roth, A., Tran, N., Piecara, B. et al. Factors Associated with Awareness of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Among Persons Who Inject Drugs in Philadelphia: National HIV Behavioral Surveillance, 2015. AIDS Behav 23, 1833–1840 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2293-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2293-0

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