Allen Dion C, Rabionet Silvia E, Popovici Ioana, Zorrilla Carmen D
Sociobehavioral and Administrative Pharmacy, Nova Southeastern University College of Pharmacy, Davie, FL, USA.
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maternal-Infant Studies Center, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
J Pharm Health Serv Res. 2022 Jul 18;13(3):168-171. doi: 10.1093/jphsr/rmac025. eCollection 2022 Sep.
One in four persons living with HIV in the USA is a woman. While the annual HIV diagnoses for 2019 decreased by approximately 9% when compared with 2015, this decrease was seen in men, while the rates remained stable for women. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is one major biomedical tool that could benefit women at risk of HIV. However, women only account for approximately 5% of PrEP users annually. The objective of this study is to identify and address the gender disparity in PrEP use.
This study used epidemiological data from the AIDSVu database to confirm the presence of a gender disparity in PrEP use across the USA. Cross-sectional data from 2019 showed that PrEP use was significantly higher in men, which suggested the existence of a disparity. The PrEP-to-Need ratio was then used to examine the trends in PrEP use relative to the rate of HIV infections, from 2012 to 2019, and to confirm the existence of the gender disparity in PrEP use.
There is a marked gender disparity in PrEP use. This disparity is widening and therefore demands more attention to women at risk of HIV. Some recommendations for addressing the disparity include the following: raising awareness, capacity building for providers, scaling up efforts to better reach women at risk of HIV and additional research to understand the drivers of the disparity.
Policy makers could therefore prioritize the health outcomes of women by promoting research and education aimed at extending PrEP offerings to effectively reach women.
在美国，每四名感染艾滋病毒的人中就有一名是女性。与2015年相比，2019年的年度艾滋病毒诊断数下降了约9%，但这一下降仅见于男性，而女性的感染率保持稳定。暴露前预防（PrEP）是一项重要的生物医学工具，可能使有感染艾滋病毒风险的女性受益。然而，每年使用PrEP的女性仅占约5%。本研究的目的是识别并解决PrEP使用中的性别差异问题。
本研究使用了AIDSVu数据库的流行病学数据，以确认美国各地PrEP使用中存在性别差异。2019年的横断面数据显示，男性使用PrEP的比例显著更高，这表明存在差异。然后使用PrEP需求比来研究2012年至2019年期间PrEP使用相对于艾滋病毒感染率的趋势，并确认PrEP使用中存在性别差异。
PrEP使用中存在明显的性别差异。这种差异正在扩大，因此需要更多地关注有感染艾滋病毒风险的女性。解决这一差异的一些建议如下：提高认识、对提供者进行能力建设、加大努力以更好地覆盖有感染艾滋病毒风险的女性，以及开展更多研究以了解差异的驱动因素。
因此，政策制定者可以通过促进旨在扩大PrEP供应以有效覆盖女性的研究和教育，将女性的健康结果作为优先事项。
