Date Available

12-3-2018

Year of Publication

2018

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Communication and Information

Department/School/Program

Communication

First Advisor

Dr. Nancy Grant Harrington

Abstract

Antiretroviral treatment pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective daily prevention medicine to reduce risks of HIV infections in high-risk populations. The current study examined PrEP uptake among gay men using the integrative model of behavioral prediction (IMBP) as the theoretical framework. Briefly, the IMBP states that attitude, norms, and behavioral control predict intention, which then predicts behavior. The intention-behavior relationship is moderated by actual control variables: skills and environmental constraints. To examine how IMBP variables affect PrEP uptake among gay men, I first conducted formative elicitation interviews with gay men; then I used the results from the interviews to construct the main survey. Then, the project recruited 500 gay men to participate in the survey, half of whom were PrEP takers and half of whom were not. The results of path modeling showed that attitudes and norms predicted behavioral intention, and intention predicted PrEP uptake among gay men. Results of moderation analyses testing the influence of skills and environmental constraints showed that HIV knowledge, lack of access to a doctor(s), and lack of health care system knowledge were significant moderators between intention and PrEP uptake. The practical implications, theoretical contributions, and empirical advancements were discussed.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2018.438

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