Preliminary investigation evaluating college students' willingness and need to take pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV

Abstract

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective pharmacological approach to HIV prevention. This study sought to evaluate the need and willingness of African American college students to utilize PrEP. We evaluated students' perceived HIV risk, beliefs about medication, sexual risk behaviors, and need for PrEP. The sample consisted of 147 participants (Mage = 21.6 years, SDage = 4.8), and 57.7% were female. Most of the sample had been sexually active in the past. Participants were willing to initiate PrEP if they knew it would lower their chance of contracting HIV (88.2%), knew their partner was HIV positive (85.4%), or thought they were at high-risk for HIV infection (87.9%). Additionally, there was a strong positive relationship between willingness to initiate PrEP and beliefs about medicine (r = 0.217, p < 0.05). These findings have relevant implications that will aid in the promotion of PrEP uptake and initiation among at-risk college students.