Qualitative Analysis of Twitter Data on Attitudes of Men Who Have Sex with Men Related to Long Acting Injectable Prep

Speaker(s)

Veeramachaneni S1, Goswami S2, Canedo J3, Siddiqua C1, Klein A4, Gonzalez-Hernandez G5, Holmes E1, Barnard M1
1Department of Pharmacy Administration, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA, 2Complete HEOR Solutions (CHEORS), Chalfont, PA, USA, 3Department of Pharmacy Administration, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, Vallejo, CA, USA, 4University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, 5Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Presentation Documents

OBJECTIVES: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is recommended as a novel biomedical human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention tool for key populations. The burden of HIV is disproportionately high among men who have sex with men (MSM). While studies have used social media as a source of data regarding attitudes toward PrEP, they have not included long-acting PrEP (LAI-PrEP), which was more recently approved in December 2021. LAI-PrEP may hold promise in solving some disadvantages of oral PrEP in terms of access, retention, and adherence. The objective of this study was to qualitatively analyze the content of tweets related to long-acting PrEP that were posted specifically by men who have sex with men (MSM)—the population most affected by HIV.

METHODS: In prior work, a cohort of Twitter users who self-reported as MSM was automatically identified with high precision. For the present study, the keywords apretude, cabotegavir, longacting, long-acting, long acting, injectable, longactingprep, injectableprep, injectionprep, lai, and laiprep were used to search their publicly available tweets that were posted between December 2021 and September 2022. Each of the 177 matching tweets, including any hyperlinks, was coded using a thematic content analysis approach guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM) framework.

RESULTS: Of the 177 tweets reviewed, 47 tweets, posted by 32 users, were relevant to LAI-PrEP. Sentiment analysis found 27 of the tweets were positive, four were ambiguous, and 12 were negative. Perceived benefits of bimonthly dosing, dosage form, and efficacy were discussed in 27 tweets. Perceived barriers of LAI-PrEP, such as cost and lack of insurance coverage, were discussed in 16 of the tweets. Eight of the 47 tweets did not fit into the HBM framework.

CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study demonstrate that, while MSM perceive benefits of LAI-PrEP, cost is a significant barrier to uptake.

Code

PCR205

Topic

Patient-Centered Research

Topic Subcategory

Stated Preference & Patient Satisfaction

Disease

Infectious Disease (non-vaccine), Reproductive & Sexual Health