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Awareness and Perceived Effectiveness of HIV Treatment as Prevention Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in New York City

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Abstract

To assess perceptions of HIV treatment as prevention (TasP), we conducted an online survey of MSM in New York City (n = 732) asking them to rate the effectiveness of different strategies to reduce HIV risk during serodiscordant condomless anal sex between men. Only 6.1% reported not knowing what TasP was, with significantly less awareness among non-gay-identified MSM, men with less education, men who reported fewer anal sex partners in the prior 3 months, and HIV-negative/unaware men who had never used PrEP. The strategy most frequently perceived to offer “a lot” or “complete” protection from HIV was daily PrEP (70.0%), followed by TasP (39.1%), intermittent PrEP (16.6%), strategic positioning (15.8%), and withdrawal before ejaculation (10.8%). Men who were HIV positive, who had ever used PrEP, and who identified as gay/homosexual were significantly more likely to see TasP as effective. Further studies should investigate MSM’s apparent skepticism towards TasP.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center, 722 West 168th Street, 9th Fl, New York, 10032, USA

    Karolynn Siegel & Étienne Meunier

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  1. Karolynn Siegel
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  2. Étienne Meunier
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Correspondence to Karolynn Siegel.

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Karolynn Siegel declares that she has not conflict of interest. Étienne Meunier declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Siegel, K., Meunier, É. Awareness and Perceived Effectiveness of HIV Treatment as Prevention Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in New York City. AIDS Behav 23, 1974–1983 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-019-02405-y

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