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Are Anal Sex Roles Associated with Preferences for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Administration Modalities Among Men Who Have Sex with Men?

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Abstract

The current study sought to examine awareness of, willingness to use, and preferences for available and theoretical administration modalities for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and the association of anal sex roles with these concepts among a sample of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Paris, France. Broadcast advertisements were placed on a popular geosocial-networking smartphone application for MSM to direct users to complete a Web-based survey. MSM answered questions on their recent engagement in condomless anal intercourse and awareness of and willingness to use PrEP in the form of once daily and event-driven pill regimens, long-acting injections, and penile and rectal microbicides as well as sexual roles. Multinomial regression models were fit to assess the association between behaviorally classified anal sexual role and preferences for one of these biomedical prevention modalities. A total of 482 HIV-uninfected MSM completed the survey, 48.1% of whom engaged in some form of condomless anal intercourse in the preceding 3 months. Most respondents (85.3%) had heard of once daily PrEP, but fewer respondents had heard of other prevention strategies. Assuming equal effectiveness, long-acting injections were the most commonly preferred (21.8%). Behaviorally defined “bottom” and “versatile” MSM more frequently preferred long-acting injections (32.9% of “bottoms” and 25.3% of “versatiles”). The development of long-acting injections to deliver antiretroviral drugs and topical microbicides may offer more convenient and acceptable options for HIV prevention among MSM, as MSM in this sample were willing to use them and would prefer to use them over currently available pill regimens.

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Funding

Dr. Dustin Duncan is funded in part by National Institutes of Health Grants 1R01MH112405-01, 1R21MH110190-01, and 1R03DA09748-01A1 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant 1U01PS005122-01. This work was supported by Dr. Dustin Duncan’s New York University School of Medicine Start-Up Research Fund.

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  1. Department of Population Health, Spatial Epidemiology Lab, New York University School of Medicine, 227 East 30th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    William C. Goedel, H. Rhodes Hambrick, Noah T. Kreski, Jace G. Morganstein, Su Hyun Park, Ofole Mgbako & Dustin T. Duncan

  2. Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    John A. Schneider

  3. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    John A. Schneider

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Ofole Mgbako

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  1. William C. Goedel
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  2. John A. Schneider
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  3. H. Rhodes Hambrick
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  4. Noah T. Kreski
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  6. Su Hyun Park
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  7. Ofole Mgbako
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  8. Dustin T. Duncan
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Correspondence to William C. Goedel.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Goedel, W.C., Schneider, J.A., Hambrick, H.R. et al. Are Anal Sex Roles Associated with Preferences for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Administration Modalities Among Men Who Have Sex with Men?. Arch Sex Behav 47, 2123–2133 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1083-5

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