Let Me Prep You to PREP Me: Amplifying the Voices of Black Women and Their Providers to Consider PrEP as an HIV Prevention Option

Rasheeta Chandler, Dominique Guillaume, Jessica Wells and Natalie Hernandez
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Rasheeta Chandler: Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Dominique Guillaume: Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Jessica Wells: Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Natalie Hernandez: Community Health and Preventative Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30310, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: Despite the high efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in preventing HIV acquisition, PrEP uptake among Black cisgender women remains low. Our qualitative study assessed Black cisgender women’s perspectives, attitudes, and acceptability towards PrEP, in addition to exploring PrEP-related attitudes, facilitators, and barriers to PrEP access among health care staff. This study was conducted to ascertain data to inform the development of our HIV prevention app— Savvy HER —which is being designed for Black cisgender women. Our findings indicated that Black women had low levels of PrEP acceptability and high levels of misconceptions, inaccurate knowledge, and stigma towards PrEP. Health care providers in our sample confirmed barriers of stigma, misconceptions, and knowledge among their patients coupled with difficulty accessing PrEP due to structural barriers. Our study indicated that there is a critical need to heighten Black cisgender women’s PrEP knowledge and HIV risk perception in order to increase PrEP acceptability and uptake.

Keywords: HIV prevention; health communication; pre-exposure prophylaxis; Black women; attitudes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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