An Effectiveness Trial of the PrEP for WINGS Study

This hybrid type 1 Effectiveness and Implementation Trial will evaluate an m-Health syndemic intervention (PrEP for WINGS) that aims to increase HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) initiation and adherence among women in community supervision programs (CSPs) including probation, parole, and alternative-to-incarceration (ATI) programs) in New York City (NYC) who report hazardous drinking. PrEP is a proven effective biomedical strategy to prevent HIV infection. To date, however, very few PrEP interventions have focused on cis-gender women, and none have targeted women in CSPs, who due to racialized drug laws, are disproportionately Black and Latinx. Women in CSPs have high rates of HIV risk behaviors (e.g., frequent condomless sex, sex with multiple partners) and elevated rates of HIV infection as high as 17%. Large racial health disparities in PrEP uptake exist, a nationally representative study showing that Black women in the USA were four times less likely to have initiated PrEP than non-Hispanic white women. Advancing an effective PrEP intervention for women in CSPs holds promise for reducing HIV disparities by reaching a large number of Black and Latinx women who remain at high risk for HIV. Compared to the general population, women in CSPs have very high rates of co-occurring hazardous drinking and intimate partner violence (IPV), which are major syndemic drivers of HIV infection and well-established barriers to PrEP uptake. PrEP enables women to engage in a female-controlled HIV prevention strategy, which is vitally important within the context of hazardous drinking and violent partners. To date, however, there are no evidence-based syndemic-focused PrEP interventions for women that address hazardous drinking and IPV exposure. The PrEP for WINGS intervention is a 3-session syndemic-focused intervention that combines an evidence-based mHealth Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) tool, and an evidence-based mHealth IPV SBIRT tool - WINGS (Women Initiating New Goals of Safety) with an evidence-based PrEP intervention that includes a PrEP decision making aid with novel PrEP telemedicine and peer navigation components delivered by Community Health Advocates (CHA). Peer navigation has been shown to increase PrEP initiation and adherence and reduce barriers related to medical mistrust and stigma, which is important for Black and Latinx women. The same single session evidence-based PrEP intervention with peer navigation will serve as the comparison condition (PrEP alone), allowing us to compare the added value of the WINGS syndemic components and offering a cost-efficient alternative evidence-based PrEP intervention. Both interventions will be implemented at various community-based organizations supporting women in CSPs in NYC.