795. Awareness and Interest in PrEP Options Among US Cisgender Women – A National Survey


 
 
 Cisgender women continue to have low pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake in the US, despite making up almost 20% of new HIV infections. The gap between the number of women who would benefit from PrEP and those who use PrEP highlights the unmet need for HIV prevention in women. As new prevention options, such as long-acting (LA) injectable PrEP, become available, it is important to understand PrEP awareness and preferences among women to help meet this need. Awareness, willingness, and usage of PrEP as well as HIV prevention preferences were assessed among sexually active women in the US.
 
 
 
 Cisgender women were recruited through a geolocation targeted social media campaign and completed a self-administered, cross-sectional, online survey on demographics, sexual health and behavior, healthcare access, PrEP awareness and history, and PrEP intention and preferences. Eligible participants were cisgender women, 18 years or older, who reported an unknown or HIV-negative status, currently resided in the US, and reported vaginal or anal sex in the past six months. Descriptive statistics were calculated using SAS v9.4.
 
 
 
 From November to December 2021, 961 participants completed the survey (median age: 28.0 years; Black non-Hispanic: 34.7%; Black Hispanic: 19.9%; White non-Hispanic: 21.3%; White Hispanic: 12.0%; Another race: 9.1%). A majority had heard of PrEP (70.6%) and LA PrEP (50.1%) as a way to prevent HIV; however, a smaller proportion had spoken to a healthcare provider (HCP) about PrEP (37.8%), had ever used PrEP (19.7%), or were currently on PrEP (9.3%). While PrEP awareness was high across all racial and ethnic groups, PrEP discussions with an HCP and PrEP usage was lowest among Black, non-Hispanic women (Figure 1). Most participants (78.8%) expressed intent to regularly use any HIV prevention method and 66.0% reported likelihood of using LA PrEP if it were available. Condoms were the most favored prevention option (46.7%) followed by HCP administered LA PrEP (24.3%), vaginal ring (9.0%), self-administered LA PrEP (8.8%), and oral PrEP (6.7%).
 
 
 
 Although most women demonstrated high PrEP awareness and interest, many had never discussed PrEP with an HCP. The availability of LA PrEP may be an important opportunity for HCPs to discuss a preferred PrEP option with women.
 
 
 
 Tonia Poteat, PhD, MPH, PAC, Merck & Co. Inc: Advisor/Consultant|Viiv Healthcare: Advisor/Consultant Supriya Sarkar, PhD, MPH, ViiV Healthcare: Salary|ViiV Healthcare: Stocks/Bonds Leigh Ragone, MS, GlaxoSmithKline: Stocks/Bonds|ViiV Healthcare: Employment Keith Rawlings, MD, ViiV Healthcare: Employee Alex R. Rinehart, PhD, ViiV Healthcare: Stocks/Bonds Vani Vannappagari, MBBS, MPH, PhD, ViiV Healthcare: I am full time employee of ViiV Healthcare and receive GlaxoSmithKline stock as part of my compensation package|ViiV Healthcare: Stocks/Bonds.
