Currently submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Oct 11, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Oct 15, 2024 - Dec 10, 2024
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Agreements and disagreements between professionals and users about the experience of a telehealth service for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (telePrEP): a qualitative study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Men who have sex with men face high HIV prevalence globally. In Brazil, the prevalence among MSM is over 15%. Strategies such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) are crucial to reduce HIV transmission. However, increasing PrEP coverage and adherence is challenging due to stigma, changes in risk perception, and difficulty in maintaining regular clinical follow-up.
Objective:
We analyzed the perceptions and experiences of users and healthcare professionals about PrEP clinical follow-up via asynchronous remote consultations (telePrEP) in five PrEP services in three Brazilian regions.
Methods:
We conducted 19 interviews with users and six interviews with healthcare professionals. The interviews addressed motivations and experiences with in-person and remote PrEP and were thematically analyzed using the QSR Nvivo® software.
Results:
In summary, users, primarily cisgender men, positively evaluated telePrEP and highlighted practicality, autonomy, and reduced stigma as benefits of telePrEP. They reported less embarrassment when sharing personal information remotely and the convenience of avoiding frequent trips to healthcare facilities. Healthcare professionals, on the other hand, expressed concerns about losing connection with patients and potentially reducing the quality of care due to the lack of face-to-face interactions.
Conclusions:
The successful implementation of telehealth services for PrEP should consider these different perceptions to adequately meet both groups' needs. Additional studies are needed to explore implementation in other contexts and improve healthcare professionals' training to deal with the specificities of PrEP care.
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Copyright
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