Development and Evaluation of a PrEP Decision Aid for Women Seeking Domestic Violence Services in Baltimore

Intimate partner violence (IPV)-exposed Black women are often forced to choose between relationship safety and HIV prevention; thus, trauma-, gender-, culturally-responsive HIV prevention interventions are needed for this key priority population. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be a viable partner-independent option for IPV-exposed Black women, but no study has identified an evidence-based strategy to promote and increase PrEP uptake among this population, specifically IPV-exposed Black women in the South. Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), the proposed research aims to adapt, implement and evaluate self- and advocate-administered versions of a PrEP decision aid in a domestic violence agency in Baltimore in order to increase PrEP uptake among Black women in Ending the HIV Epidemic (EtHE) priority areas, address trauma as a barrier to PrEP uptake, and ultimately combat racial disparities in women's HIV cases. Therefore, this Type II hybrid effectiveness-implementation study seeks to adapt an existing PrEP decision aid to IPV-exposed Black women seeking domestic violence (DV) services in Baltimore, an EtHE priority state. Self- and advocate-administered versions of the PrEP decision aid will be implemented and the aid will be evaluated using a three-arm randomized trial. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) will guide this research. A formative evaluation using qualitative interviews with IPV-exposed Black women (N=10) and DV advocates (N=20) was conducted to adapt the PrEP decision aid. Next, the decision aid will be implemented in a DV agency and 90 IPV-exposed Black women will be randomized to either the self- or advocate-administered versions of the aid, or the control intervention, in order to compare feasibility, acceptability and preliminary effectiveness with baseline, 1-, 3-, and 6-month surveys. Focus groups with DV advocates and participants will assess for implementation process outcomes. This study will: provide support for a PrEP decision aid that addresses HIV prevention for IPV-exposed Black women; use implementation science to increase PrEP uptake; include DV agencies in intervention development and implementation; and improve understanding of PrEP scale-up by addressing implementation factors in settings that serve IPV-exposed Black women.