Session: Understanding PrEP Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for HIV Prevention: Implications for Health Equity (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

Oral daily pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), as single tablet emtricitabine/tenofovir, is a new prevention method for HIV-negative individuals that has been shown to reduce HIV acquisition risk by more than 90% among women, men who have sex with men and serodiscordant couples. The updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy calls for an increase in prescription of PrEP by at least 500 percent by 2020. Despite approval from the US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the clinic-based delivery of PrEP services among high-risk populations; awareness, prescription, and uptake of PrEP as an HIV prevention option is disproportionately low. Increasing awareness and addressing barriers to access and adherences to PrEP requires a comprehensive approach. This symposium highlights and addresses these barriers and facilitators to PrEP awareness, acceptance and uptake. The three studies presented offer three approaches to examining this topic. To start the discussion, Paper 1 presents findings from a study using HIV Behavioral Surveillance data to describe the correlates to PrEP awareness in a high-risk sample of HIV negative women. The second study presents findings from depth focus groups that explore college students' awareness, knowledge, willingness to use PrEP. The final study draws on data from a PrEP study that involved 133 service providers and examined their intent to share information about PrEP and the implementation of a PrEP questionnaire in their practice settings. The symposium seeks to not only identify the gaps and barriers to effective dissemination of PrEP information to high-risk populations, but will also discuss the role of social work researchers and practitioners in the PrEP implementation processes in various practice settings.