Predictors of men's attitude toward use of PrEP among 275 HIV-negative and 58 HIV-discordant gay male couples

Although between 1/3 and 2/3 of gay men acquire HIV within the context of a relationship (e.g., gay male couples), few HIV prevention interventions currently exist for this at-risk group. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the use of HIV treatment for prevention of new infections among HIV-negative individuals, has now become available. However, the attitudes of whether men among HIV-negative seroconcordant or HIV-discordant gay male couples will use PrEP still remain unknown. Accordingly, the present study aimed to identify which demographic and relationship characteristics were associated with men's attitude toward use of PrEP among a sample of 275 HIV-negative and 58 HIV-discordant gay male couples. In this cross sectional study, dyadic data from a convenience sample of 333 dyads were collected electronically throughout the U.S. Men in each dyad completed the questionnaire independently. Descriptive statistics and multilevel modeling were used to identify predictors of men's attitude toward use of PrEP. Results from this study found that 22% of couples were somewhat likely, 23% were very likely, and 31% were extremely likely to use PrEP. Men's attitude toward use of PrEP did differ by their relationships' HIV-status. Multilevel modeling regression analyses revealed that higher attitudes were associated with non-white couples, and among couples with one or both men having had sex outside of their relationship. Lower attitudes were associated with those who had earned a Bachelors degree or higher. Other results will be presented and implications for targeting the use of PrEP for at-risk negative and discordant gay male couples will be discussed.