DC CFAR Investigators, Sarah Calabrese, PhD, and Manya Magnus, PhD, along with their colleagues have published an article in AIDS Patient Care and STDs entitled, "Support Your Client at the Space That They're in: HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Prescribers' Perspectives on PrEP-Related Risk Compensation".
This article discusses a qualitative study to explore PrEP-related risk compensation attitudes among providers with firsthand experience prescribing PrEP. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and evidence that most PrEP users do not engage in risk compensation, some healthcare providers report patient risk compensation to be a deterrent to prescribing PrEP.
Three themes emerged: (1) providers' role is to support patients in making informed decisions, (2) risk behavior while taking PrEP does not fully offset PrEP's protective benefit, and (3) PrEP-related risk compensation is unduly stigmatized within and beyond the healthcare community. Several providers also acknowledged an evolution in their thinking from initial ambivalence toward greater acceptance of PrEP and PrEP-related behavior change. The authors relate that PrEP providers' insights about risk compensation may help to address unsubstantiated concerns about PrEP-related risk compensation and challenge the acceptability of withholding PrEP on these grounds.
Click here to read the full article.