Evaluation of the Impact and Outcomes of a Rapid Transition to Telehealth PrEP Delivery at a Sexual Health Clinic During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Sex Transm Dis
• Personal Author:
  Higgins, David M. ; Riba, Adrean ; Alderton, Lucy ; Wendel, Karen A. ; Scanlon, Jennifer ; Weise, Julia ; Gibson, Nathan ; Obafemi, Oluyomi
• Description:
  Background:
  
  Increasing HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use is a critical part of ending the HIV epidemic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many PrEP services transitioned to a telehealth model (telePrEP). This report evaluates the effect of COVID-19 and the addition of telePrEP on delivery of PrEP services at the Denver Sexual Health Clinic (DSHC), a regional sexual health clinic in Denver, CO.
  
  Methods:
  
  Prior to COVID-19, DSHC PrEP services were offered exclusively in-clinic. In response to the pandemic, after March 15, 2020, most PrEP initiation and follow up visits were converted to telePrEP. A retrospective analysis of DSHC PrEP visits compared pre-COVID-19 (September 1, 2019 to March 15, 2020) to post-COVID-19 (March 16, 2020 to September 30, 2020) visit volume, demographics, and outcomes.
  
  Results:
  
  The DSHC completed 689 PrEP visits pre-COVID-19 and maintained 96.8% (n=667) of this volume post-COVID-19. There were no differences in client demographics between pre-COVID-19 (n=341) and post-COVID-19 PrEP start visits (n=283) or between post-COVID-19 in-clinic (n=140) vs telePrEP start visits (n=143). There were no differences in 3–4-month retention rates pre-COVID-19 (n=17/43) and post-COVID-19 (n=21/43) (P=0.52) or between in-clinic (n=12/21) and telePrEP clients (n=9/22) in the post-COVID-19 window (P=0.37). Also, there were no significant differences in lab completion rates between in-clinic (n=140/140) and telePrEP clients (n=138/143) (P=0.06) and prescription fill rates between in-clinic (n=115/136) and telePrEP clients (n=116/135) in the post-COVID-19 window (P=0.86).
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Implementation of TelePrEP enabled the DSHC to sustain PrEP services during the COVID-19 pandemic without significant differences in demographics, engagement, or retention in PrEP services.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Anti-HIV Agents COVID-19 HIV Infections Humans Pandemics Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Retrospective Studies Sexual Health Telemedicine
• Keywords:
  COVID-19 Pandemic HIV Telehealth TelePrEP
• Source:
  Sex Transm Dis. 50(12):816-820
• Pubmed ID:
  37820240
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10668045
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  U62 PS004572/PS/NCHHSTP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  50
• Issue:
  12
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ffae2826a7010e1b04e5ca4dadfcbd3c9caf20b72b415e75dfa5ff1727dfa80ae95f20925b1627bdaffa9ce1eb6ce15099f5b4a54b0a690e8df9567e51328694
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/135780/cdc_135780_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 376.09 KB ]