Impact of One-Way SMS Health Communication to Increase PrEP Uptake in Non-HIV, STI Testing Patients: A Pre-Post Intervention Study

There are about 1.1 million people currently living with HIV and 15% are unaware of their HIV status. Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a prophylactic treatment with the use of Anti-Retro Viral (ARV) medications to prevent HIV transmission. The current study used secondary de-identified data from clinic visits between August 1, 2022, to Jan 31, 2023, to evaluate the impact of one-way SMS communication to increase PrEP uptake in non-HIV, STI testing patients. Participants (n=13485) were 57.6 % male, age 28.5 ±7.9, and 63.2% heterosexual. Data was obtained from a large urban STI clinic in the Southwestern United States. Primary analyses consisted of generalized linear modeling (GLM) using two models to evaluate both main effects and time interaction. There was a significant increase in post-intervention PrEP uptake (P