#PrEP4Love: An Evaluation of a Sex-Positive HIV Prevention Campaign

Jessica M Dehlin; Ryan Stillwagon; Jim Pickett; Lance Keene; John A Schneider

doi:10.2196/12822

#PrEP4Love: An Evaluation of a Sex-Positive HIV Prevention Campaign

JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2019 Jun 17;5(2):e12822. doi: 10.2196/12822.

Authors

Jessica M Dehlin^#¹, Ryan Stillwagon^#², Jim Pickett³, Lance Keene⁴, John A Schneider¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
² Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
³ AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
⁴ Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 31210141
PMCID: PMC6601419
DOI: 10.2196/12822

Abstract

Background: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective but underutilized method for preventing HIV transmission in communities vulnerable to HIV. Public health campaigns aimed at increasing PrEP awareness and access have less evaluation data.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate Chicago's PrEP campaign, PrEP4Love (P4L), a campaign that uses health equity and sex-positivity approaches for information dissemination.

Methods: P4L launched in February 2016 and remains an active campaign to date. The analysis period for this paper was from the launch date in February 2016 through May 15, 2016. Our analysis reviews the Web-based reach of the campaign through views on social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram), smart ads, or ads served to individuals across a variety of Web platforms based on their demographics and browsing history, and P4L website clicks.

Results: In total, 40,913,560 unique views were generated across various social media platforms. A total of 24,548 users clicked on P4L ads and 32,223,987 views were received from smart ads. The 3 most clicked on ads were STD Signs & Symptoms-More Information on STD Symptoms, HIV & AIDS Prevention, and HIV Prevention Medication. An additional 6,970,127 views were gained through Facebook and another 1,719,446 views through Instagram. There was an average of 182 clicks per day on the P4L website.

Conclusions: This is the first study investigating public responses to a health equity and sex-positive social marketing campaign for PrEP. Overall, the campaign reached millions of individuals. More studies of PrEP social marketing are needed to evaluate the relationship of targeted public health campaigns on stigma and to guide future PrEP promotion strategies.

Keywords: health equity; health promotion; pre-exposure prophylaxis; public health.

©Jessica M Dehlin, Ryan Stillwagon, Jim Pickett, Lance Keene, John A Schneider. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 17.06.2019.