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Intimacy a strong motivator to adopting PrEP
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A desire for intimacy was a strong predictor of willingness to adopt pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, among men who have sex with men, according to data published in Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
“For people who are disseminating PrEP or talking to patients about PrEP, it’s important to think about their relationships, Kristi E. Gamarel, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in a press release. “Something that’s being supported and endorsed right now by the WHO is couples voluntary testing and counseling. That may be a good way to disseminate PrEP and to allow couples to have a discussion about whether PrEP is good for their relationship, and how they can support each other using PrEP.”
Gamarel, who was a doctoral student at the City University of New York during the study, and Sarit A. Golub, PhD, used data from an ongoing cross-sectional study of MSM who completed in-person interviews and received information about PrEP. This sample included 164 HIV-negative MSM who were in seroconcordant primary partnerships and provided information on their perceived risk for HIV, HIV testing behavior, sexual risk, condom use and intentions for PrEP use.
In a bivariate analysis, the researchers found that PrEP adoption intentions were associated with education, age, higher HIV risk perception, any sex with outside partners, condomless anal sex with outside partners and higher intimacy motivations. In a multivariate analysis, age, education and intimacy motivations for condomless sex were associated with PrEP adoption intentions.
“We found that intimacy motivation was the strongest predictor of adopting PrEP,” Gamarel said. “Sex doesn’t happen in a vacuum — interpersonal and relationship context really matter. Many HIV infections are occurring between people who are in a primary relationship.”
Disclosure: Gamarel reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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