Enhancing HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Practices via an Educational Intervention.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Infectious Disease Prevention
• Public Health

Background:

• Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is crucial for HIV prevention, yet primary care providers' prescribing patterns, especially among house officers, are not well-documented.
• While most providers find PrEP safe and effective, less than half have experience prescribing or referring patients for it.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if an educational intervention can enhance HIV PrEP practices among internal medicine house officers.
• To assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, and prescribing likelihood regarding PrEP.

Main Methods:

• A pretest/posttest design was employed, involving surveys before and after a PrEP-focused educational intervention for internal medicine trainees.
• Data collected included perceptions of PrEP safety, effectiveness, barriers, and provider comfort levels, analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests.

Main Results:

• Post-intervention, 94% of trainees believed PrEP was effective and 92% considered it safe, a significant increase from baseline.
• The likelihood of trainees prescribing PrEP within six months rose to two-thirds after the training.
• Pre-intervention, only 18% had referred or prescribed PrEP, and 22% were unaware of it.

Conclusions:

• Focused, brief training effectively promotes awareness, acceptance, and the likelihood of prescribing PrEP among internal medicine trainees.
• Educational interventions are a viable strategy to improve PrEP utilization in HIV prevention efforts.