HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis: Characterization and Adherence of Users at Risk of Infection

Objectives: To delineate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, sexual behavior, and the degree of adherence of users to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), as well as the factors that impact their full adherence. Materials and Methods: This is an analytical, cross-sectional, retrospective study carried out in reference services in infectology. Subjects with at least three clinical monitoring of PrEP were included in the study. We considered as ‘full adherence’ those individuals who took 100% of the recommended doses. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed to investigate the association between full adherence to PrEP and selected variables. Results: Most participants were male (80.1%; n=185), homosexual (61.9%; n=143), with a mean age of 32±8.6 years. Regarding the clinical aspects, the presence of subjects with chronic kidney disease using prophylaxis drew attention. Concerning the use of PrEP, only 5.6% (n=13) had a degree of adherence lower than 80%. In this context, it was observed that user characteristics, such as meretriciousness and homosexuality, impacted full adherence to the method (p= 0.033; p=0.049, respectively). Conclusion: The results achieved pointed to high adherence to PrEP. However, it was observed that factors such as homosexuality and prostitution had a negative association with widespread adherence to prophylaxis. In this sense, clinical follow-up by a multidisciplinary team is essential, given the need to adopt strategies to strengthen the use of prophylaxis by specific groups and the existence of patients with clinical conditions that the use of PrEP can aggravate.