Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino men who have sex with men (Black and Latino MSM) in the United States face significant barriers accessing comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment and are consequently disproportionately affected by HIV. It is imperative to design community-oriented, educational public health interventions that address their particular sociocultural views and attitudes towards HIV. We created an interactive, culturally-tailored, educational website that provides information and resources about HIV prevention and treatment to meet the sociocultural needs and perspectives of these men. We conducted individual cognitive interviews with 20 HIV-negative and HIV-positive Black and Latino MSM living in New England to assess the information and resources presented to them that were developed through earlier focus groups with men from similar backgrounds. Each interview was audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Four major themes were identified through this process including participants’: 1) awareness and knowledge of HIV prevention and treatment; 2) intentions and behaviors toward Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Treatment as Prevention (TasP) uptake; 3) negative experiences with primary care providers when seeking HIV prevention and treatment services; and 4) opinions about the structure and content of the newly developed website. Awareness, knowledge, and behavioral intentions toward PrEP and TasP uptake were low among Black and Latino MSM. Effective community-oriented, educational public health interventions are needed that utilize technological approaches, such as a culturally-tailored interactive website, to reach Black and Latino MSM and empower them to talk with their health care providers about these HIV prevention and treatment methods.