Table 2.
Awareness, willingness to use, barriers, and facilitators to daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru (2018).
| Variables | Brazil (N=11,367; 58.42%), n (%) |
Mexico (N=5934; 30.50%), n (%) |
Peru (N=2156; 11.08%), n (%) |
Total (N=19,457), n (%) |
P valuea | ||
| PrEPb awareness (yes; n=19,396c) | 7794 (68.82) | 3796 (64.11) | 1002 (46.60) | 12,592 (64.92) | <.001 | ||
| Willingness to use PrEP (yes) | 7099 (62.45) | 4158 (70.07) | 1241 (57.56) | 12,498 (64.23) | <.001 | ||
| PrEP use (n=19,425) | <.001 | ||||||
| Never | 10,875 (95.67) | 5735 (96.97) | 2075 (96.78) | 18,685 (96.19) | N/Ad | ||
| Current | 266 (2.34) | 87 (1.47) | 42 (1.96) | 395 (2.03) | N/A | ||
| Past | 226 (1.99) | 92 (1.56) | 27 (1.26) | 345 (1.78) | N/A | ||
| Anticipated risk compensation (yes) | 2325 (20.45) | 1380 (23.26) | 543 (25.19) | 4248 (21.83) | <.001 | ||
| PrEP if part of Ministry of Health program (yes) | 5814 (51.15) | 4113 (69.31) | 1165 (54.04) | 11,092 (57.01) | <.001 | ||
| Preferred PrEP regimen | <.001 | ||||||
| Daily oral | 3802 (33.45) | 2260 (37.92) | 719 (33.35) | 6771 (34.80) | N/A | ||
| Event-driven | 2494 (21.94) | 1491 (25.13) | 553 (25.65) | 4538 (23.32) | N/A | ||
| Injectable | 5071 (44.61) | 2193 (36.96) | 884 (41.00) | 8148 (41.88) | N/A | ||
| Barriers to daily oral PrEPe | N/A | ||||||
| Information | |||||||
| Afraid of short-term side effects | 6805 (59.87) | 4126 (69.53) | 1614 (74.86) | 12,545 (64.48) | <.001 | ||
| Afraid of long-term side effects | 7601 (66.87) | 4601 (77.54) | 1721 (79.82) | 13,923 (71.56) | <.001 | ||
| Afraid that antiretroviral therapy would not work if infected | 6522 (57.38) | 5031 (84.78) | 1810 (83.95) | 13,363 (68.68) | <.001 | ||
| Afraid of not being 100% protected against HIV | 7831 (68.89) | 4900 (82.57) | 1794 (83.21) | 14,525 (74.65) | <.001 | ||
| Behaviors | |||||||
| Taking pills everyday | 5774 (50.80) | 2497 (42.08) | 1049 (48.65) | 9320 (47.90) | <.001 | ||
| Talking to a doctor about sex life | 2670 (23.49) | 1897 (31.97) | 886 (41.09) | 5453 (28.03) | <.001 | ||
| Having HIV/ sexually transmitted infection testing every 3 months | 5025 (44.21) | 2615 (44.07) | 1120 (51.95) | 8760 (45.02) | <.001 | ||
| Beliefs | |||||||
| Taking PrEP means that I am at risk of HIV infection | 4540 (39.94) | 3339 (56.27) | 1203 (55.80) | 9082 (46.68) | <.001 | ||
| My partners may expect condomless anal sex | 4310 (37.92) | 3584 (60.40) | 1190 (55.19) | 9084 (46.69) | <.001 | ||
| Afraid that people may think I am HIV+ | 4303 (37.86) | 1966 (33.13) | 950 (44.06) | 7219 (37.10) | <.001 | ||
| Afraid that people ask me why I am using PrEP when they see me taking the pills | 3709 (32.63) | 1663 (28.02) | 880 (40.82) | 6252 (32.13) | <.001 | ||
| Facilitators to daily oral PrEPf | N/A | ||||||
| Free PrEP | 8797 (77.39) | 4317 (72.75) | 1474 (68.37) | 14,588 (74.98) | <.001 | ||
| Access to free HIV test | 8573 (75.42) | 4554 (76.74) | 1567 (72.68) | 14,694 (75.52) | .001 | ||
| Access to other free exams | 8052 (70.84) | 4285 (72.21) | 1499 (69.53) | 13,836 (71.11) | .04 | ||
| Access to personal PrEP counseling | 7103 (62.49) | 4129 (69.58) | 1444 (66.98) | 12,676 (65.15) | <.001 | ||
| Support from apps or messages | 5464 (48.07) | 2880 (48.53) | 1160 (53.80) | 9504 (48.85) | <.001 | ||
| Support and counseling about my sex life | 4272 (37.58) | 3138 (52.88) | 1175 (54.50) | 8585 (44.12) | <.001 | ||
aChi-square test.
bPrEP: pre-exposure prophylaxis.
cThe full sample, N=19,457, is included unless otherwise specified.
dN/A: not applicable.
eBarriers were grouped into PrEP information, beliefs, and behaviors. The percent shown is of participants responding that the barrier was important or very important.
fThe percent shown is of participants responding that the facilitator was very important.