PrEP Awareness in the Context of HIV/AIDS Conspiracy Beliefs Among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino MSM in Three Urban US Cities

ABSTRACT

We examined HIV conspiracy beliefs and PrEP awareness in a convenience sample of minority MSM. Participants in three cities completed a behavioral self-assessment on sociodemographics, PrEP awareness, and HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs. HIV/AIDS conspiracy beliefs were more common among Black than Latino MSM (58% vs. 42%, p < .05), and among younger men than older men (age 18–29 (50%), 30–39 (22%), 40+ (28%); p < .05). PrEP awareness co-occurred with conspiracy belief less (37%) than with non-belief (63%, p < .05), persisting in multivariable regression (aOR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.38–0.71). This relationship suggests that current HIV care and prevention messaging is either inaccessible or not credible to some minority subpopulations.