Increased awareness of event-driven PrEP and knowledge of how to use it: results from a cross-sectional survey of gay and bisexual men in Australia
Curtis Chan
A * , Doug Fraser A , Andrew E. Grulich A , Steven Philpot A , Matthew Vaughan B , Michael Wacher B and Benjamin R. Bavinton A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
B ACON, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia.
Sexual Health 19(6) 501-508 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH22101
Submitted: 8 June 2022 Accepted: 13 July 2022 Published: 3 August 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Background: Recent changes to Australian PrEP prescribing guidelines support the use of event-driven pre-exposure prophylaxis (ED-PrEP) to prevent HIV among gay and bisexual men (GBM). Social marketing campaigns to increase awareness of ED-PrEP were conducted in early 2021. This study aimed to assess the awareness and knowledge of this method after these campaigns.
Methods: We conducted a national cross-sectional online survey about PrEP knowledge and attitudes from March to May 2021. Participants were asked if they had heard of ED-PrEP. Among aware participants, questions about the ‘2-1-1’ method were asked to assess knowledge. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the characteristics of those who were aware of ED-PrEP, and those who had correct knowledge of ED-PrEP. Analysis was restricted to non-HIV-positive cis-GBM who were aware of PrEP.
Results: Among the 419 participants eligible for this analysis, 286 (68.3%) had heard of ED-PrEP. Awareness was associated with living in a postcode with ≥10% gay men, PrEP experience, and belief ED-PrEP is effective. Of these 286 participants, 125 (43.7%) correctly answered questions about how to take ED-PrEP. Correct knowledge was associated with PrEP experience and belief ED-PrEP is effective.
Conclusions: A growing proportion of GBM are aware of ED-PrEP, but many still do not know how to take it as per clinical guidelines. More work is needed to increase knowledge among GBM to promote effective use of this method.
Keywords: event-driven PrEP, gay men, health promotion, HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS, men who have sex with men, on-demand PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis.
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