Acceptability and Barriers to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis in Atlanta's Adolescents and Their Parents

Abstract

Adolescents aged 13–24 years account for 23% of new HIV infections in Atlanta, indicating need for better HIV prevention strategies in this population. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is now approved for adolescent use. This study aims to understand the acceptability of and barriers to PrEP in adolescents and parents. We administered PrEP acceptability and barrier measures to HIV(−) 13–17 year olds and their parents from January to April 2016 in an adolescent clinic and emergency department in Atlanta, GA, stratifying by adolescent sexual activity. Acceptability scores (AS) and barrier scores (BS) were calculated by averaging survey answers 1–3. For AS, 1 was very unlikely to accept PrEP; concomitantly, BS near 3 indicated fewer barriers. Two-sample hypothesis testing, Pearson correlations, and linear regression were used. Of the 102 adolescent/parent dyads, 67% of adolescents were female, 94% black, with a mean age of 15.7 ± 1.5 years, and 31% were sexually active. Parents were 94% female, 96% black, with a mean age of 42.4 ± 8.9 years. AS averaged between somewhat to very likely to accept PrEP (2.4 ± 0.5 and 2.2 ± 0.6) in adolescents and parents, respectively. BS averaged between unlikely and somewhat likely to perceive barriers to PrEP (2.0 ± 0.4 and 1.9 ± 0.5) in adolescents and parents, respectively. The adolescent/parent dyad is likely to accept PrEP, regardless of sexual activity. Limitations include that nearly 70% of adolescents were not sexually active, and the study was conducted before PrEP approval by the Food and Drug Administration for those who are younger than 18 years. These results support future parent and adolescent education on PrEP.