Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan-Dec:21:23259582221107327.
doi: 10.1177/23259582221107327.

"We Feel Like Everybody's Going to Judge us": Black Adolescent Girls' and Young Women's Perspectives on Barriers to and Opportunities for Improving Sexual Health Care, Including PrEP, in the Southern U.S

Madeline C Pratt  1 , Seabrook Jeffcoat  2 , Samantha V Hill  3 , Elizabeth Gill  4 , Latesha Elopre  1 , Tina Simpson  3 , Robin Lanzi  5 , Lynn T Matthews  1
Affiliations

"We Feel Like Everybody's Going to Judge us": Black Adolescent Girls' and Young Women's Perspectives on Barriers to and Opportunities for Improving Sexual Health Care, Including PrEP, in the Southern U.S

Madeline C Pratt et al. J Int Assoc Provid AIDS Care. 2022 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Black adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) are disproportionately affected by HIV in the southern U.S.; however, PrEP prescriptions to Black AGYW remain scarce. We conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) with Black AGYW ages 14-24 in Alabama to explore opportunities for and barriers to sexual health care including PrEP prescription. Twelve AGYW participated in IDIs with median age 20 (range 19-24). All reported condomless sex, 1-3 sexual partners in the past 3 months, and 6 reported prior STI. Themes included: 1) Stigma related to sex contributes to inadequate discussions with educators, healthcare providers, and parents about sexual health; 2) Intersecting stigmas around race and gender impact Black women's care-seeking behavior; 3) Many AGYW are aware of PrEP but don't perceive it as an option for them. Multifaceted interventions utilizing the perspectives, voices, and experiences of Black cisgender AGYW are needed to curb the HIV epidemic in Alabama and the U.S. South.

Keywords: HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis; U.S. South; adolescents; sexual health; women and girls.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: LT Matthews: Operational support from Gilead Sciences for unrelated projects.

SV Hill: Support from Gilead Sciences for MedIQ.

L Elopre: Support from Merck Foundation for unrelated project.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Participant eligibility and enrollment.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Conceptual Model of Intersecting Themes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. CDC. HIV in the United States and dependent areas. Accessed December 13, 2021.https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/overview/ataglance.html
    1. CDC. HIV Surveillance Report, 2017, 2018. 29.
    1. CDC. HIV in the Southern United States. September 2019, 2019.
    1. Alabama Department of Public Health Division of STI/HIV Prevention and Control (DoSHPaC). Brief Facts on African-Americans and HIV in Alabama. 2019. Accessed September 15, 2021. https://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/hiv/assets/brieffactsonafricanameric...
    1. Donnell D, Baeten JM, Bumpus NN, et al. HIV Protective efficacy and correlates of tenofovir blood concentrations in a clinical trial of PrEP for HIV prevention. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2014;66(3):340–348. doi:10.1097/QAI.0000000000000172 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances