Counseling Intervention Improves PrEP Uptake

Addressing social and emotional barriers to PrEP use is a critical step toward bridging the gap between advances in biomedical HIV prevention and factors that influence access to those advances, according to results published in JAIDS. Valerie Earnshaw, PhD, and colleagues randomly assigned participants (N=177) in the South eastern United States to one of four arms to determine the potential effect of a brief, stigma-focused counselling intervention referred to as Jumpstart to improve PrEP uptake. The intervention led to a small but meaningful effect size, with self-reported PrEP use increasing across Jumpstart conditions; the control condition reported 24% uptake while those in Jumpstart plus text messages and phone calls (the most intensive intervention arm) reported 37% uptake. A similar pattern was observed for biologically confirmed use of PrEP. Among those aged 30 and older, Jumpstart participants were more likely to have a post-intervention profile with fewer barriers than control participants and report the greatest PrEP uptake.