Abstract
Sexually themed events present a unique opportunity for scaling up pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to men who have sex with men (MSM). This study descriptively explored PrEP uptake among MSM who anticipated attending a week-long major South Florida sexually themed event and examined potential facilitators and barriers to PrEP engagement among potential attendees. Of the participating HIV-negative MSM (n = 96), 66.7% were currently taking PrEP. Prior attendance at sexually themed events was significantly associated with current PrEP engagement and almost 75% of HIV-negative MSM not on PrEP reported high interest in taking PrEP if offered for free at future events.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article and/or its supplementary materials. All other data are available from the corresponding author, EW, upon reasonable request.
Code Availability
All code for data cleaning and analysis is available upon request from EW.
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Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank Joey Waknin for their help with this study. We also would like to thank each participant who offered their insights by participating in this study.
Funding
Some of the author time was supported by K24DA040489 (Safren), K23MD015690 (Harkness), and R36 DA058563-01A (Weinstein). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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Conceptualization (EW, MP, SS, AH), Formal Analysis (EW, MP), Investigation (MP, AH, SAS), Methodology (EW, MP, AH), Project Administration (MP, AH), Writing – Original Draft (EW, MP, NC, AH), Writing – Review & Editing (EW, MP, NC, SS, AH).
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Dr. Safren receives royalties from Oxford University Press, Guilford Publications, and Springer/Humana press for books on cognitive behavioral therapy. The other authors have no other conflicts of interest to disclose.
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All study procedures were approved by the University of Miami’s Institutional Review Board.
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Weinstein, E.R., Puccinelli, M., Cardenas, N. et al. PrEP to Party: Exploring MSM’s PrEP Use and Interest in the Context of Sexually Themed Events. AIDS Behav 28, 1384–1389 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-023-04225-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-023-04225-7