Awareness and Willingness to use HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Trans Women in China: A Community-Based Surve
- PDF / 440,494 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 107 Downloads / 204 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Awareness and Willingness to use HIV Pre‑exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Among Trans Women in China: A Community‑Based Survey Li Yan1 · Zihan Yan2 · Erin Wilson3,4 · Sean Arayasirikul3 · Jessica Lin3 · Hongjing Yan5 · Willi McFarland3,4 Accepted: 22 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract China’s national guidelines call for increasing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use to reverse the epidemic in populations at highest risk. However, few data exist on PrEP awareness and willingness among trans women in China. Our research aim was to fill this data gap through a cross-sectional survey among trans women in Nanjing and Suzhou cities of Jiangsu province. Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used to recruit participants to gauge their awareness of and willingness to use PrEP. Logistic regression analysis was used to characterize associations with awareness of PrEP and willingness to use PrEP. Of 222 HIV-negative/unknown serostatus trans women, 33.3% were aware of PrEP and 49.1% were willing to use PrEP. PrEP awareness was associated with a university degree or above (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.77, 95% CI 1.31–5.89) and not using alcohol with sex (AOR 2.02, 95% CI 1.00–4.09). Willingness to use PrEP was higher among trans women with one (AOR 3.56, 95% CI 1.68–7.54) or multiple sexual partners (AOR 2.53, 95% CI 1.24–5.15) compared to those with no partners. This study witnessed low awareness of PrEP, yet substantial willingness to use PrEP. Implementation research to identify ways to promote, scale up access, and assess effectiveness of PrEP for trans women is urgently needed in China. Keywords Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) · HIV · Transgender women · China
Introduction Trans women (persons assigned male sex at birth who identify as female, trans women, or another gender identity) may bear the highest burden of HIV of any population in the world [1, 2]. A systematic review using data from 15 countries and across multiple continents estimated the odds of HIV infection to be 49 times that of the general population
[1]. The same review noted the challenges research faces in obtaining community-based samples of trans women. In Asia, the prevalence of HIV among trans women across studies was found to range from 0.5 to 45%, with most studies finding HIV prevalence between 12 and 30% [2]. A recent cross-sectional study conducted in China also documented high HIV prevalence (14.8%, 95% CI 10.6–19.8) in trans women [3]. This estimate places the population among the most severely affected by HIV in the nation.
Li Yan and Zihan Yan contributed equally to this work. 1
Xuzhou Central Hospital, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China
2
University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, USA
3
Zihan Yan [email protected]
Center for Public Health Research, San Francisco Department of Public Health, 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 710, San Francisco, CA 94102‑6033, USA
4
Erin Wilson [email protected]
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of
Data Loading...
