Willingness to Use and Adhere to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in China

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the levels of willingness to use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and intention to adhere to PrEP and to further explore factors associated with PrEP uptake among men who have sex with men (MSM) in China. A total of 524 MSM were recruited from Chengdu, China. Half of the participants had heard of PrEP, and the awareness rate varied from 33.8%, 30.7%, and 7.1% for daily oral PrEP, on-demand PrEP, and long-acting injectable PrEP (LAI-PrEP), respectively. The overall willingness to use any type of PrEP in the next six months was 84.9% if PrEP is effective and provided for free. Participants were less likely to say that they would use PrEP if they used a condom consistently with their regular partners. However, participants were more likely to say that they would use PrEP if they had casual partners in the past month and had higher HIV prevention literacy. The majority of participants intended to adhere to PrEP prescription. More than forty percent (43.1%) of the participants reported that they might reduce condom use if they took PrEP. We found that the overall willingness to use PrEP was high among MSM living in China, but willingness varied across the different types of PrEP.

Low awareness of and willingness to use PrEP in the Chinese YMSM: An alert in YMSM HIV prevention

“…'s [17] study (19.1%), but lower than in other studies about willingness to use PrEP among MSM in China (e.g. 64.0% [14], 67.8% [16], 84.9% [18]) and among YMSM in America (55.3%) and Lebanon (53.5%) [23,24]. This study is the first one to focus on PrEP awareness, willingness and related perceived barriers among YMSM in China.…”

“…However, the wide application of PrEP remains a challenge. Some research on PrEP awareness and PrEP willingness among Chinese MSM has been published previously [14–18]. Despite the fact that Chinese YMSM are a key population for implementation of a PrEP strategy [19], few articles have concentrated on their awareness of and willingness to use PrEP, especially the associated factors and related perceived barriers.…”

Association between relationship characteristics and willingness to use PrEP among same-sex male couples: a cross-sectional actor-partner analysis in Guangzhou, China

“…12 Moreover, our result was consistent with the high PrEP willingness of MSM in other cities of China (67.8∼91.9%). 28–30 Overall, the willingness to use PrEP reported in previous studies on gay male couples was higher than that of the worldwide estimation in the general MSM population (57.8%). 31 The results of the abovementioned studies indicated a good foundation for future PrEP implementation among the HIV-negative partners of MSM couples in China.…”

A community-engaged mHealth intervention to increase uptake of HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in China: Study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial

“…By April 2020, there was an estimated number of 400-600 PrEP users reported from official demonstration projects in this country (13). Cross-sectional surveys (12,(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22) and PrEP clinical trials (23)(24)(25) have reported perceived barriers to PrEP uptake among Chinese GBMSM including concerns about side effects, financial cost and low HIV risk perception. Yet little is known about multi-level barriers to PrEP uptake and maintenance in China.…”