Photo Credit: VSanandhakrishna
A peer-to-peer program successfully trained and mobilized volunteers to distribute information about PrEP to people not often included in outreach campaigns.
A peer-to-peer-based model to disseminate information about PrEP increased awareness of this HIV prevention strategy in key unreached groups, according to results published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice.
“Despite the early success of HIV PrEP in reducing HIV transmission … many people who could benefit from HIV PrEP do not yet know about it, or know how to access it,” Sara Paparini, PhD, MSc, and colleagues wrote.
The Ask Me About PrEP pilot program enrolled trained volunteers and encouraged them to use knowledge about their communities and regional areas to discuss PrEP with peers. Volunteers could post about PrEP on social media, hold individual or group conversations with peers in person and online, and host information sessions about PrEP.
Program Includes Diversity in Ethnicity & Gender
In total, 12 volunteers enrolled in the program, completed training, and served as volunteers. Throughout the project, volunteers engaged their peers in 11,889 conversations about PrEP using individual conversations, online group conversations, online workplace educational events, and social media. Most (n=11,000) occurred over social media; 889 were conducted in person.
Data from the program showed that 80 participants (24% of one-to-one conversations) stated an intention to start or restart PrEP following the intervention. None of the data for online group conversations, online training events/forums, or social media posts reported this outcome; however, the researchers suggested it could be due to the difference between one-to-one and online interactions and the ability to gather more in-depth information about PrEP-related intentions following an online interaction.
Dr. Paprini and colleagues noted that the program included representation from Asian people (22% of the ethnicity demographic), Black people (15% of the ethnicity demographic), transgender people (15% of the gender demographic), and women (15% of the gender demographic). This diversity “demonstrates that peer-to-peer-based diffusion models can go some way to addressing concerns about the inequity of access to PrEP in some groups who are less likely to know about PrEP,” the researchers wrote.
The overall results from the program indicate that “volunteers could be recruited, trained, and mobilized to disseminate information about accessing PrEP … using a flexible and blended approach to people who are not typically included in public health campaigns,” Dr. Paparini and colleagues wrote.
