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. 2023 Sep;35(9):1365-1374.
doi: 10.1080/09540121.2023.2177250. Epub 2023 Mar 9.

Depression and PrEP uptake, interruption, and adherence among young women in Uganda

Yasaman Zia  1   2 , Lydia Nambala  3   4 , Randy M Stalter  1   2 , Timothy R Muwonge  3 , Timothy Ssebuliba  3 , Agnes Nakyanzi  3 , Olivia Nampewo  3 , Jade Boyer  2 , Susan Morrison  2 , Rogers Nsubuga  3 , Monica Bagaya  3 , Robert Nyanzi  3 , Flavia Matovu  5 , Michael Yin  6 , Christina Wyatt  7 , Andrew Mujugira  2   3 , Renee Heffron for the Kampala Women’s Bone Study  1   2   8
Affiliations

Depression and PrEP uptake, interruption, and adherence among young women in Uganda

Yasaman Zia et al. AIDS Care. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Depression is a common cause of morbidity globally and can impact adherence to medications, posing challenges to medication-based HIV prevention. The objectives of this work are to describe the frequency of depression symptoms in a cohort of 499 young women in Kampala, Uganda and to determine the association of depression symptoms with use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Mild or greater depression, assessed by the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), was experienced by 34% of participants at enrollment. Participants with mild depression symptoms tended to uptake PrEP, request PrEP refills, and adhere to PrEP with similar frequency to women with no/minimal signs of depression. These findings highlight opportunities to leverage existing HIV prevention programs to identify women who may benefit from mental health services and may not otherwise be screened.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03464266..

Keywords: Depression; HIV prevention; Mental health; PrEP.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures

Authors declare no conflicts of interests or competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Distribution of PHQ-9 categories over time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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