HIV Prevention Program

The purpose of this project is to test a culturally-tailored, community-delivered long-acting injectable PrEP (lenacapavir) program for Latine gay and bisexual men (GBM) and transgender women (TGW). The objective is to evaluate whether this intervention demonstrates greater persistence on lenacapavir for Latine GBM and TGW compared with what has been observed historically at the Duke PrEP Clinic.

PrEP is a medication that can help prevent the spread of HIV, but many who might benefit from PrEP do not take it. Individuals experiencing incarceration are interested in starting PrEP while incarcerated, but there are challenges that make it difficult for them to start this medication when they return to the community. This study will test to see if a nurse-led, same-day PrEP start program can help individuals experiencing incarceration start and stay on PrEP. To do this, N = 90 PrEP-eligible patients during their incarceration will test the nurse-led program. Everyone will receive access to a nurse-led behavioral intervention during incarceration and information about PrEP services available in the community. Then, N = 60 participants will receive patient navigation support to help them link with PrEP care in the community and N = 30 participants will receive a list of community resources. Research interviews will be conducted with participants while they are incarcerated and 1, 3, and 6 months after they re-enter the community. Participants are offered compensation for each of the research interviews.

In this study, 50 pediatricians will participate in academic detailing, an evidence-based, 1-on-1 outreach education technique intended to promote clinician behavior change through brief, highly interactive, and individualized dialogues with trained educators, or "detailers". The goals of this study are to learn about whether this is a practical and acceptable technique, and whether it changes how pediatricians prescribe pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to adolescents and young adults (AYA) and how patients take it.