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What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study

While HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective, it has arguably disrupted norms of ‘safe sex’ that for many years were synonymous with condom use. This qualitative study explored the culture of PrEP adoption and evolving concepts of ‘safe sex’ in Sydney, Australia, during a period of...

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Autores principales: Haire, Bridget, Murphy, Dean, Maher, Lisa, Zablotska-Manos, Iryna, Vaccher, Stephanie, Kaldor, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8341650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34352034
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255731
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author Haire, Bridget
Murphy, Dean
Maher, Lisa
Zablotska-Manos, Iryna
Vaccher, Stephanie
Kaldor, John
author_facet Haire, Bridget
Murphy, Dean
Maher, Lisa
Zablotska-Manos, Iryna
Vaccher, Stephanie
Kaldor, John
author_sort Haire, Bridget
collection PubMed
description While HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective, it has arguably disrupted norms of ‘safe sex’ that for many years were synonymous with condom use. This qualitative study explored the culture of PrEP adoption and evolving concepts of ‘safe sex’ in Sydney, Australia, during a period of rapidly escalating access from 2015–2018, drawing on interviews with sexually active gay men (n = 31) and interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (n = 10). Data were analysed thematically. Our results explored the decreasing centrality of condoms in risk reduction and new patterns of sexual negotiation. With regards to stigma, we found that there was arguably more stigma related to not taking PrEP than to taking PrEP in this sample. We also found that participants remained highly engaged with promoting the wellbeing of their communities through activities as seemingly disparate as regular STI testing, promotion of PrEP in their social circles, and contribution to research. This study has important implications for health promotion. It demonstrates how constructing PrEP as a rigid new standard to which gay men ‘should’ adhere can alienate some men and potentially create community divisions. Instead, we recommend promoting choice from a range of HIV prevention options that have both high efficacy and high acceptability.
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spelling pubmed-83416502021-08-06 What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study Haire, Bridget Murphy, Dean Maher, Lisa Zablotska-Manos, Iryna Vaccher, Stephanie Kaldor, John PLoS One Research Article While HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective, it has arguably disrupted norms of ‘safe sex’ that for many years were synonymous with condom use. This qualitative study explored the culture of PrEP adoption and evolving concepts of ‘safe sex’ in Sydney, Australia, during a period of rapidly escalating access from 2015–2018, drawing on interviews with sexually active gay men (n = 31) and interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders (n = 10). Data were analysed thematically. Our results explored the decreasing centrality of condoms in risk reduction and new patterns of sexual negotiation. With regards to stigma, we found that there was arguably more stigma related to not taking PrEP than to taking PrEP in this sample. We also found that participants remained highly engaged with promoting the wellbeing of their communities through activities as seemingly disparate as regular STI testing, promotion of PrEP in their social circles, and contribution to research. This study has important implications for health promotion. It demonstrates how constructing PrEP as a rigid new standard to which gay men ‘should’ adhere can alienate some men and potentially create community divisions. Instead, we recommend promoting choice from a range of HIV prevention options that have both high efficacy and high acceptability. Public Library of Science 2021-08-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8341650/ /pubmed/34352034 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255731 Text en © 2021 Haire et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Haire, Bridget
Murphy, Dean
Maher, Lisa
Zablotska-Manos, Iryna
Vaccher, Stephanie
Kaldor, John
What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study
title What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study
title_full What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study
title_fullStr What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study
title_short What does PrEP mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? A qualitative study
title_sort what does prep mean for ‘safe sex’ norms? a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8341650/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34352034
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255731
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