doi:10.1007/s10461-021-03345-2

Paper Title

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Dissemination: Adapting Diffusion Theory to Examine PrEP Adoption

Authors

James Dennis Fortenberry

Keywords

hiv/aids
pre-exposure prophylaxis (prep)
african american
men who have sex with men (msm)
prep adoption
social stigma
health literacy
sexual risk
diffusion of innovations (doi)
prep awareness
prep efficacy
prep side effects
hiv prevention
public health interventions
prep dissemination
hiv risk reduction
community health
prep uptake
health disparities
behavioral health
diffusion
msm
prep

Article Type

Original Article

Journal

AIDS and Behavior

Research Impact Tools

DOI

10.1007/s10461-021-03345-2

Issue

Volume : 25 | Issue : 10 | Page No : 3145–3158

Published On

June, 2021

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Abstract

PrEP adoption among African-American men-who-have-sex-with-men (AAMSM) remains low. We applied Diffusion-of-Innovations (DOI) theory to understand PrEP adoption processes among young HIV-negative/status unknown AAMSM (AAYMSM; N = 181; 17–24 years). Quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to examine predictors of PrEP diffusion stages. Most AAYMSM were in the persuasion stage (PrEP-aware, hadn’t adopted; 72.4%). Our results suggest that model antecedents are DOI stage-specific. PrEP awareness (knowledge stage) was associated with lower levels of social stigma (p < .03) and greater health literacy (p < .05), while sexual risk (p < .03) and education (p < .03) predicted PrEP adoption (12.2%). PrEP efficacy and side effects were primary innovation characteristics influencing adoption receptivity in the persuasion stage. Interventions to improve PrEP diffusion should be tailored to stage-specific antecedents depending on how a community is stratified across the DOI stages.